Working with investors and acquirers on games company transactions

We’ve worked on dozens of corporate finance transactions and conducted over a hundred due diligence assessments ranging from seed stage and project funding to VC investments, private equity buyouts and acquisitions.

Our services for these clients typically revolve around:

  • Commercial due diligence: We conduct rigorous, impartial assessments of investment and acquisition targets’ commercial models and growth strategies looking at their solidity and sustainability, their Achilles Heels and upsides, the viability of the targets’ forecasts, their target demographics, target market and product/market fit, their management team and their exit potential.

  • Opportunity identification: We leverage our opportunity databases, market knowledge and global senior contact network to offer clients opportunity identification services. These have typically been acquirers or private equity firms looking for specific types of opportunity for which long potential target lists are prepared and steadily filtered to produce the most compelling companies to approach.

  • Market validation: We’ve conducted market exploration and validation services for clients that are not specific to particular target companies but which assess broader market opportunities such as certain product categories, revenue models or geographic territories,  

  • Post-transaction services: Investors and acquirers have brought us in to work with their investees helping them maximise their commercial potential and improve their growth strategies. We’ve also been asked to conduct impartial assessments of investees’ ongoing and forecast performance to determine future investment commitments.

Latest post
The rocket fuel scenario
The rocket fuel scenario

Investors love this kind of opportunity. As the cliché goes, they love to be the rocket fuel for the spaceship you’ve built. Investment to power growth is one of the most common drivers for games studio fundraising but it also comes with numerous trip hazards and things to consider…

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The last mile scenario
The last mile scenario

In our ongoing series of articles on how investors react to games company pitches, this scenario is one we see all the time – funding for that last mile to finish a game. Read what this pitch means to investors and how studios can improve this pitch

Read More →

How we’ve helped investors and acquirers

Private Equity-backed Management Buyout

Client: A UK private equity fund
Brief: Assist with the MBO of a major games development company including answering very detailed questions about the target’s commercial model, forecasts and exit potential.
Time frame: 4 weeks of concentrated due diligence work to meet a transaction deadline.
Deliverables: Following a thorough examination of the target’s business plan and financial model including several detailed interviews with senior management, we produced a 35 page report addressing every one of the client’s due diligence questions.
Result: The client was very satisfied with the report, greenlit the deal as a result and subsequently made an extremely successful exit when the target was sold just a few years later.

Series of games development studio acquisitions

Client: Games console manufacturer
Brief: Prepare commercial and valuation due diligence reports for multiple games development studio acquisitions by the client over multiple years.  
Time frame: These typically took 2-3 weeks’ research, financial model and business plan assessments, valuation range calculations and, upon conclusion, report writing.
Deliverables: Independent due diligence reports to present to the client’s Board in support of the acquisitions by senior management. 
Result: Reports were validated and acquisition approval granted by the board for every project.

Commercial due diligence for major investment round

Client: A European mid market private equity fund
Brief: Assess the investment opportunity represented by a leading European games development, publishing and distribution company. We were selected as impartial games industry experts that could present an honest and undiluted appraisal of the target company’s information memorandum, business plan, growth strategy and management team to determine the suitability of the business for the investor client and the proposed valuation.
Time frame: 2 weeks of assessment, 1 week of presentation and feedback.
Deliverables: We assessed all of the due diligence documentation, prepared a detailed list of additional due diligence questions and attended meetings with the target company’s management at which these questions were posed and the answers discussed. We provided written and oral feedback and opinions to the investor client during and at the end of the process.
Result: In this instance, the investor client, based on the responses received during the due diligence meetings and the feedback provided by us, decided not to proceed with the investment. Although a large proportion of the due diligence projects that we’ve worked on have resulted in the investor client making an investment, this case illustrates that we are not afraid of providing negative opinions where they are warranted. 

Falk Muller-Veerse, Cartagena Capital

Falk Muller-Veerse, Cartagena Capital and Bryan, Garnier and Co
“I have worked with Nick Gibson on numerous projects and have found his knowledge of the games industry to be unparalleled.”