Embracer Group acquires Mad Head Games
Embracer Group AB (“Embracer”), through its wholly owned subsidiary Saber Interactive[1] (“Saber”), has today entered into an agreement to acquire 100 percent of the shares in Mad Head Games doo Novi Sad (“Mad Head Games”). The company, based in Belgrade and Novi Sad, Serbia, is an independent game developer led by three founders with a team of 130 people across four offices in Belgrade and Novi Sad.
“After years of following Mad Head’s success in making casual adventure games, it’s been impressive watching them expand into premium core titles. This is a versatile group that is capable of creating triple AAA content with the potential to be one of the world’s leading developers.” says Matthew Karch, CEO Saber Interactive and Director of the Embracer Board.
Background and rationale
Mad Head Games was founded in 2011 by Nenad Tomić, Uroš Banješević, and Aleksa Todorović, all three having more than 15 years game development experience. Residing in a talented region with a strong gaming industry presence, the company currently operates in four office locations, with two offices in Belgrade and Novi Sad, respectively. Over nearly a decade, Mad Head Games has grown into a sizable team of 130 people.
Being a skilled Unreal developer, Mad Head Games has extensive experience collaborating with leading publishers such as Big Fish Games, Koch Media, and Wargaming. Mad Head Games has also developed some original IPs over the years, including the well-received single-player mystery game Adam Wolfe.
For Saber, Mad Head Games represents a studio with significant experience in full-scale turnkey development of core games across multiple gameplay genres on both PC and console platforms. With Saber’s expertise and support there is potential to enhance Mad Head Games development processes even further on entirely new projects for games with owned IPs. The acquisition will also strengthen Embracer’s presence in Eastern Europe with the first studio operating in Serbia.
“The love for gaming brings people closer, especially in times like these. Together – we can achieve more. Together – we can reach further. In Embracer, we recognized a powerful ally, with a shared passion and strategic vision, allowing us to unlock new, exciting possibilities that will enable us to become a leading AA+ developer in the region.” says Nenad Tomić, Co-founder and CEO Mad Head Games.
Mad Head Games will continue to operate as an independent game developer under Saber, with continued leadership by the three founders. With the acquisition, Saber will further strengthen their development capabilities by bringing a studio of 100+ experienced developers into the group.
Purchase Price
The parties have agreed not to disclose the full transaction terms due to commercial reasons. The upfront consideration consists of a mix of cash and Embracer B shares. The earn-out consideration, also consisting of a mix of cash and Embracer B shares, is based on financial targets up until 2027 (a little more than 6 years).
Completion of the transaction
The transaction is subject to certain conditions and is expected to be completed within the next couple of weeks.
[1]Acquired through Embracer’s wholly owned subsidiary Embracer Group Lager 2 AB and will be part of the Saber Interactive group.
