Astrum Online Entertainment

Astrum Online Entertainment is until 2009 an independent Russian company, the largest player in the online interactive entertainment market in Eastern Europe. December 1, 2009 the company became part of Mail.ru.

At the time of the transaction, the holding included five companies:

• Astrum Nival,
• Nikita Online,
• IT Territory,
• TimeZero и
• DJ Games.

The holding companies have launched more than thirty mass multiplayer online games, including such projects as Perfect World, "Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar," "Legend: Legacy of Dragons," "Territory," TimeZero, "Sphere," "Piracy" and others. At the beginning of 2009, the total audience of the holding's projects amounted to more than 20 million players.

Performance indicators

Revenue - about $50 million in 2008, about $100 million in 2009 (sources in Astrum) ^[1].

History

2024: Astrum Entertainment buys "Deuskraftdev"

Russian video game publisher Astrum Entertainment bought Deuskraftdev, which is a Russian legal entity of mobile game developer Deus Craft, known for the Grand Hotel Mania project. The corresponding entry appeared in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities in January 2024. Read more here.

2022: My.Games' Russian business moves to Astrum Entertainment

On December 15, 2022, Alexander Chachava, managing partner of LETA Capital, a private investment company, who bought My.Games a few months earlier, announced the division of this game developer.

The Russian business segment is allocated to the independent company Astrum Entertainment. It will become the owner of licenses for publishing games in Russia, including existing licenses for PC games from external developers. All teams involved in these projects will continue to work at Astrum Entertainment.

The separated Russian business will become part of a joint venture (JV) with the game company Innova. At the same time, Innova will be the controlling and managing person of the new joint venture.

Russian business of game developer My.Games moves to a new company

The portfolio of two game publishers included in the joint venture will total dozens of popular games in Russia, including Lineage 2, Aion, Black Desert, Warface, Archaeage, LOST ARK, Perfect World, Allodes Online and others. The range of projects is planned to be expanded by publishing new products, including from Asian markets.

My.Games plans to complete the restructuring within a few months. After that, the company, having separated the Russian business, will work on international projects and strengthen ties with partners from Latin America, Indonesia and India. My.Games, headquartered in Amsterdam, will continue to develop mobile, PC and console products, as well as publishing in key foreign markets. By the end of 2022, the company has 12 regional offices and representative offices in the Russian Federation, Europe, the USA and Asia.

In September 2022, it became known that VK sells its gaming direction MY.GAMES for $642 million. Alexander Chachava bought 100% of the company. As a result of the deal, he got the company's studios and gaming products, whose revenue in 2021 amounted to $595 million.^[2]

2009: Mail.ru buys the company

Preparing the company for sale

In September 2009, the manager of a computer game company and a source close to one of the DST companies told Vedomosti about the upcoming merger of Mail.ru with Astrum Online Entertainment. Negotiations are still underway, but the likelihood of a deal is high, say a manager close to Astrum and two sources among Mail.ru and Astrum shareholders. This is not a takeover of one company by another, but a merger by redistributing the shares of existing co-owners, said one of Vedomosti's interlocutors. The deal is "partly" monetary, says a source close to the shareholders of both companies: South Africa's Naspers, which owns 32% of the Mail.ru, wants DST to offset the erosion of its stake in the combined company. He does not name the amount of the alleged payments.

For sales of online games to grow, it is necessary to attract new users, which is exactly what Mail.ru have, the manager close to one of the parties explained the meaning of the merger.

In addition, the production and distribution of games within one company significantly optimizes costs. Shareholders are counting on the growth of the capitalization of the combined company. The interlocutor of Vedomosti cites as an example the Chinese Internet company and game manufacturer Tencent, which overtook the largest Chinese search engine Baidu in terms of capitalization. About 40% of Tencent's revenue comes from online gaming.

Astrum is a source of monetization for many portals (for example, for Rambler), which, after merging this holding with Mail.ru, may not want to cooperate with their main competitor. Rambler is only important for the quality of games, his representative assures.

In September 2009, the company costs about $0.5 billion, according to the manager of a large investment bank, and Astrum - about $200 million. The top manager of the Internet company estimates Astrum at $300-400 million.

FAS allows a deal to sell the company

On November 24, 2009, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) Russia approved the sale of Naspers Netherlands a 100% stake in Astrum Online Entertainment to a subsidiary (MIH Internet BV, registered in). The application for the purchase of 38% of Astrum shares by another Dutch subsidiary Naspers (Myriad International Holdings B.V) was also granted. Information about this is published on the website of the federal service.

The seller is the investment fund Digital Sky Technologies (DST). "DST has been looking for a long time where to attach its gaming assets, for example, the scenario of combining Astrum Online Entertainment and Mail.ru was considered," comments Tatyana Menkova, an analyst at Finam. - Naspers insisted, however, that the fund offset a possible dilution of the portal's stake. It seems that it was not possible to agree, and another decision was made. It can be considered a compromise. On the one hand, DST will receive money that it can invest in new projects. On the other hand, the gaming company will be tightly integrated with Mail.ru, acting as a factor in the growth of portal revenues. " According to Menkova, due to the closure of Astrum Online, it is difficult to give an accurate estimate of its cost, but we can talk about a corridor of $100-300 million.

Mail.ru gets 100% in the company

December 1, 2009 Mail.ru became the owner of 100% Astrum Online Entertainment. Astrum shares are partially paid for in Mail.ru shares, partly in cash. The parties did not disclose other details of the deal.

It was decided that the company will operate under the Mail.ru brand, Dmitry Grishin will remain its president and CEO. Igor Matsanyuk, president of Astrum, will receive the post of first vice president of Mail.ru, Vladimir Nikolsky, CEO of Astrum, will take the post of vice president of the company.

Earlier, market participants explained that the idea of ​ ​ combining Mail.ru and Astrum belongs to DST, and Naspers was against diluting its stake in Mail.ru. The South African holding was demanding that the DST compensate for this reduction with money. What will be Naspers' stake in the combined internet company, representatives of Mail.ru do not disclose, but they say that DST will retain control.

According to Dmitry Grishin, online games are one of the most effective methods of monetizing an Internet audience today. He hopes the deal brings significant synergies.

Notes