Moonton

History

2021: ByteDance buys Moonton for $4 billion

At the end of March 2021 the Chinese , the technology company and owner TikTok ByteDance acquired Moonton gaming studio for $4 billion. The Reuters acquisition was formalized through ByteDance's Nuverse video game division, according to the data.

Nuverse was founded in 2019 and has published games such as Strike Royale, Eden no Tobira, Arena of Evolution: Red Tides and others. In early 2021, the gaming division of ByteDance launched an official website. In turn, Moonton is widely known worldwide as the publisher of the popular Mobile Legends franchise, in which Mobile Legends: Bang Bang gained particular popularity.

TikTok owner acquires Moonton gaming studio for $4 billion

Analysts consider the deal an important event in the history of mobile esports. The purchase makes ByteDance a direct competitor to Chinese holding Tencent. Since the rights to Mobile Legends will transfer to ByteDance after the deal, the company will be able to directly compete with Honor of Kings and League of Legends, Tencent's popular games, which have become a major source of revenue for the company.

Two sources told Reuters that Tencent was also planning to buy Moonton Technology. However, ByteDance bypassed the holding, making a more profitable offer. This is not the first attempt by ByteDance to squeeze competitors in the gaming industry - for example, in October 2020, the company opened the Pixmain publishing division for mobile games and the Danjuan Games gaming platform.

ByteDance said in a statement:

Through collaboration between teams and experience, Moonton provides the strategic support needed to rapidly develop Nuverse.

Moonton CEO Yuan Jing said that if the deal was approved by the authorities, Moonton would continue to operate as an independent organization.^[1]

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