Fortnite Outsourcer Keywords Agrees to £2.1 Billion EQT Bid

(Bloomberg) — Keywords Studios Plc agreed to a bid from private equity firm EQT AB that values the video game services company at about £2.1 billion ($2.5 billion).

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Investors will get £24.50 per share in cash, the companies said in a statement on Wednesday. That’s below a May offer of £25.50 per share. Keywords’ board unanimously recommended the bid, which EQT said was its final offer in the statement.

Keywords Studios, established in 1998 and listed on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market in 2013, provides game development, audio and art services to clients such as Epic Games Inc. and Activision Blizzard Inc. The company has expanded rapidly since going public by acquiring numerous support studios, and titles it has worked on include Fortnite, Call of Duty and Baldur’s Gate 3. The company operates across 26 countries.

EQT came back with a lower bid than its May offer last month. Keywords said at the time that a number of games and development projects had been delayed or canceled as the industry struggled to recover from last year’s Hollywood strikes. The company said it expects growth to pick up in the second half of the year.

Keywords, which also buys up other video game service providers and has said it’s in talks for deals currently, had rejected several previous bids from EQT, but announced advanced talks in May after the private equity firm made an offer that was a “significant increase from the initial proposal.”

Shares of Keywords rose 2.9% to £23.86 at 8:06 a.m. in London. They had gained about 39% this year through Tuesday’s close.

(Updates with additional details throughout)