International Game Technology PLC is pleased to announce that it has decided to sell off its Double Down Interactive social casino business to a South Korean headquartered firm for an amount of $825 million.
In terms of the agreement, a new multi-year strategic partnership will be established between IGT and DoubleU Games that will see the licensing of IGT’s social slots that have been derived from several converted land-based games.
The agreement was agreed to by the IGT Board of Directors and is due to close in the second quarter of 2017.
Double Down Casino is one of the most popular social casinos and is offered on social media platforms such as Facebook as well as on mobile devices.
Marco Sala, Chief Executive Officer of IGT, revealed that since acquiring Double Down in 2012, IGT has grown it into one of the largest and most successful brands in the North American social casino market. He added that after several years of strong, organic growth and increasingly attractive valuation levels, the time is right for them to maximize the value of this asset to their shareholders. Sala also said that they will continue to participate in the growth of the social casino market through their multi-year, strategic partnership with DoubleU Games.
Ga-Ram Kim, Chief Executive Officer of DoubleU Games, commented on the agreement by saying that this transaction represents a unique and value-accretive partnership that combines the operational excellence of DoubleU Games with IGT’s world class slot content. Kim added that with this partnership, they are excited and confident about DoubleU Games’ future as a global leader in social casino.