We advised Jagex and its management team on the sale of Jagex to The Carlyle Group.
Jagex is headquartered in Cambridge, UK, and is one of the largest and most successful British video game studios, developing and publishing video games on PC and mobile. The company is best known for its online role-playing living game franchise RuneScape, which has attracted almost 300 million player accounts since its launch 20 years ago. Jagex has grown its RuneScape titles to a $1 billion franchise.
The Carlyle Group will use its network and resources to grow Jagex by investing more in research and development for RuneScape, increasing the rate at which new content is released, and launching new titles to broaden the studio's portfolio.
The deal required expertise drawn from across our corporate, commercial technology and data, tax and employment teams.
Commenting on the deal, Corporate Partner Robert Fenner said: "This deal adds to our considerable credentials in the gaming sector as well as showcasing our capability in the higher mid-market private equity space."
Phil Mansell at Jagex said: "I am so proud that Jagex is teaming up with Carlyle, a prestigious investment group that believes in the potential of Jagex, our vision for growth, and will support us in accelerating our multi-year growth strategy. Robert and his team gave excellent support to us throughout this transaction and helped to get us in a position to accelerate our vision and complete this sale."
The team was led by corporate partner Robert Fenner with support from Private Equity senior associates Alexander Walker and Richard Faichney, Corporate Technology associate Katie Kaplucha, and trainee Simone Thomas.
Partner Graham Hann and associates Tamara Mackay-Temesy and Jared McIntosh from the firm's Commercial Technology & Data group also advised on this deal.
Tax advice was provided by partners Graham Samuel-Gibbon and Liz Wilson and associate Marina Constanti, with employment advice given by associate Katie Davenport.
