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Tencent joins list of companies interested in buying Leyou

Tencent joins list of companies interested in buying Leyou

Chinese giant Tencent has apparently thrown its hat in the ring as a potential suitor for Leyou Technologies Holdings.

As reported by Bloomberg, the two companies are apparently in discussions about an acquisition, with information about a deal apparently breaking as early as today (Friday, July 10th).

Leyou has been on the market since December 2019, when it was reported that Chinese firm IDreamSky was in talks to snap up the company. Buyout firm CVC Capital Partners joined these discussions earlier this year, but the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has put these negotiations on ice.

Earlier this week, it was revealed that Sony had put in a bid to buy Leyou, too, while Zhejiang Century Huatong Group made an offer earlier in the year.

As spotted by Niko Partners' Daniel Ahmad, Leyou has halted the trading of its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange earlier today due to takeovers and mergers legislation in the region. This suggests that the company might have a new owner sooner rather than later.

Leyou owns a number of games companies, including Warframe developer Digital Extremes and UK studio Splash Damage. It's also working on an MMO based on Amazon's upcoming The Lord of the Rings TV show


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.