Tencent, the Chinese entertainment and tech group, was given approval last week to move ahead with its planned $1.27 billion (£900 million) acquisition of games group Sumo Group. The purchase, first announced in July last year, is one of the Chinese giant’s largest moves to date in the U.K.
Sumo is best known for “Sackboy: A Big Adventure,” a title published by Sony, as well as racing games based on Sega’s “Sonic the Hedgehog” franchise. Tencent has owned 8.75% of the company since 2019. It offered £5.13 per Sumo share for the stock which is listed on the AIM section of the London Stock Exchange.
Sumo said in a statement that the High Court in England and Wales had approved the deal and that its shares would cease to be traded. It has also been reported that Ian Livingstone, Michael Sherwin and Andrea Dunstan will no longer be non-executive directors.
The deal had also been examined in the U.S. by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, due Tencent’s Chinese nationality and to Sumo subsidiary Pipeworks Studios’ presence in Oregon….
