Listed media and gaming company Nazara Technologies has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Nazara UK, has acquired London-based gaming studio Fusebox Games for £21.18 million (approximately INR 234.55 crore).
Earlier this month, Nazara Technologies and Nazara UK entered into an agreement with the existing shareholders and founders of Fusebox to finalize the acquisition. At that time, Nazara founder and CEO Nitish Mittersain expressed the company’s enthusiasm, stating that they see a “large opportunity” in developing IP-based games and leveraging their core user base in India to support global studios with user acquisition strategies, data analytics, live operations, and AI solutions.
With Nazara UK now holding 100% of the issued share capital of Fusebox, the gaming studio has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Nazara UK and a step-down subsidiary of Nazara Technologies, according to an exchange filing.
Fusebox is known for creating IP-driven interactive story-based games, which are monetized through in-app purchases. These games primarily target audiences in developed markets, including the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and New Zealand, among others.
One of the studio’s flagship titles is ‘Love Island,’ an interactive story game based on the popular British TV show of the same name. Fusebox claims it is also developing new games based on other popular global TV intellectual properties. In the calendar year 2023 (CY23), Fusebox reported a revenue of INR 87.5 crore with an EBITDA of INR 11.7 crore. For the January-July 2024 period, the studio saw a revenue of INR 116.6 crore and an EBITDA of around INR 33.3 crore.
This acquisition is part of Nazara’s broader strategy to expand its gaming portfolio and strengthen its global presence through strategic acquisitions. In recent months, Nazara has acquired stakes in several gaming and esports companies. Notably, Nazara’s unit Absolute Sports recently entered into an asset purchase agreement to acquire the intellectual property rights of US-based gaming and esports content platform Deltia’s Gaming for $900,000 (approximately INR 7.57 crore) in an all-cash deal.
Additionally, in May, Nazara acquired the remaining 28.12% stake in Nextwave Multimedia Private Limited, the developers behind the mobile cricket game franchise World Cricket Championship, for INR 21.6 crore, bringing its total stake in Nextwave to 100%. Earlier, in April, Nazara acquired an 8.5% stake in Web3 gaming platform Circle of Games (COG) for about INR 4.17 crore. The company has also been active in the esports sector, with its subsidiary NODWIN Gaming acquiring a 100% stake in Comic Con India for INR 55 crore earlier this year.
Despite these expansions, Nazara reported a 98% decline in its consolidated net profit, posting INR 18 lakh in the March quarter (Q4) of the financial year 2023-24 (FY24), down from INR 9.4 crore in the same quarter the previous year.
As part of its global expansion efforts, Nazara recently established a new wholly owned subsidiary, Nazara Technologies UK Ltd, in the United Kingdom, with an authorized share capital of GBP 100 (around INR 10,683).
