The Israeli high-tech and social gaming company Playtika will be sold to a Chinese consortium for USD 4.4 billion in the third largest sale of an Israeli company in history.
Playtika is a Herzliya-based online game company founded in 2010. The company’s most popular game is Slotomania, which mimics real-life slot machines that allow the player to gamble with virtual currency.
Playtika’s games are played by over six million people around the world.
The sale to Shanghai-based Giant Network Technology ranks closely behind that of Chromatis, which was acquired by Lucent in the year 2000 for USD 4.5 billion, and that of NDS, which was acquired by Cisco in 2012 for USD 5 billion.
The company says that the deal will ensure that the Herzliya headquarters and management structure will remain intact. Playtika also has offices and studios in Australia, Belarus, Canada, Japan, Romania, and the United States.
The transaction is still subject to regulatory approval, and the sale is expected to be completed by the end of 2016.