Take-Two Interactive Acquiring Zynga – Bringing Mobile Gaming and PC Gaming and Console Gaming Worlds Together

Take-Two Interactive have announced that they are planning to acquire Zynga for $12.7 billion.

This deal will bring the two worlds of Mobile Gaming and Console and PC Games together to make a powerhouse!

“We are thrilled to announce our transformative transaction with Zynga, which significantly diversifies our business and establishes our leadership position in mobile, the fastest growing segment of the interactive entertainment industry,” said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO of Take-Two, in a statement. “This strategic combination brings together our best-in-class console and PC franchises, with a market-leading, diversified mobile publishing platform that has a rich history of innovation and creativity. Zynga also has a highly talented and deeply experienced team, and we look forward to welcoming them into the Take-Two family in the coming months. As we combine our complementary businesses and operate at a much larger scale, we believe that we will deliver significant value to both sets of stockholders, including $100 million of annual cost synergies within the first two years post-closing and at least $500 million of annual Net Bookings opportunities over time.”

“Combining Zynga’s expertise in mobile and next-generation platforms with Take-Two’s best-in-class capabilities and intellectual property will enable us to further advance our mission to connect the world through games while achieving significant growth and synergies together,” added Frank Gibeau, CEO of Zynga. “I am proud of our team’s hard work to deliver a strong finish to 2021, with one of the best performances in Zynga’s history. We are incredibly excited to have found a partner in Take-Two that shares our commitment to investing in our players, amplifying our creative culture, and generating more value for stockholders. With this transformative transaction, we begin a new journey which will allow us to create even better games, reach larger audiences and achieve significant growth as a leader in the next era of gaming.”

Tencent Sells Giant Stake in JD.com – Dropping its ECommerce Share

Tencent is a giant in the world of Chinese technology and beyond. Today they have announced that they will be selling most of its stake in JD.com.

Tencent will reduce is staking from 17% to 2.3%.

The proceeds will help Tencent provide shareholders with a $16.4 billion dividend.

After long being JD’s largest stakeholder, Tencent will give the title to Walmart.

This seems to be a Tencent strategy that has paid off in the long term. Instead of Tencent looking to acquire many companies in adjacent industries – they have decided to acquire minority stakes in a huge number of technology companies globally.

Why?

Its far easy to own more when you own a minority. If Tencent were to acquire more companies – they would have issues with Government and regulator approval.

Circle USDC Stablecoin is 100% backed by cash and US debt – Jeremy Allaire Confirms

There has been a lot of talk recently about Stablecoins – how they are being managed and backed against real world assets.

Today the CEO of Circle – that controls the stablecoin USDC – testifies before the House Financial Services Committee

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire confirmed that Circle’s USDC stablecoin is “100%” backed by cash and US debt. Circle shifted the composition of the reserves backing its USDC in September.

Didi Delisting from the NYSE and Moving to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange

Chinese ride-hail giant DiDi said it will delist from the New York Stock Exchange, following a Chinese government crackdown on foreign listings. (via Axios)

Didi is the Uber of China (and beyond) and it seems as though their progress might be hindered with growing geopolitical tensions between the US and China.

The delisting will occur soon and Didi will move trading across to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange has been know to have lower general multiple than its US counterparts.

Charles Hoskinson and Cardano Live Stream Updates

Charles Hoskinson is a celebrity in the crypto world. He has been live streaming on YouTube for years now and I have been learning a lot from watching all his videos over the past few months.

If you want to learn about the crypto world and specifically about Cardano and the progress on their platform, then take a look at his YouTube channel.

Wise Goes Public Today on LSE – Great Investment Opportunity

Wise is one of my favourite companies and has been for a long time.

Today Wise goes public on the London Stock Market – under the ticker – WISE.

They have been a leader in the P2P money transfer space forever, but I think they have a huge number of opportunities in adjacent markets to enter.

Today they will go public for around $7 billion USD.

I can easily see this company being worth $70 billion within 3-5 years.

Stripe Invoicing – Misses the Point!

Stripe has just launched a new invoicing tool to help its customers create invoices faster and more efficiently. However, it misses the point!

Stripe has offered invoicing options for some time within its standard platform, but now they have decided to segment it out and try to charge for something that was previously for Free (without telling anyone).

Additionally, the invoicing product only seems to be tailored to its current customer base, which is very tech / startup / businesses that require a developer heavy!

Oh… and I forgot to mention that they want to take 0.5% of your entire invoicing price just to provide you with super basic tech you really should be getting for Free.

No wonder this is getting heavily downvoted on ProductHunt!

Better luck next time Stripe. This could have been good, but missed the mark.