Monday, February 7, 2011

Riot Games Acquired By Tencent

Los Angeles-based Riot Games, the online videogame developer headed by Brandon Beck, said late Friday that Tencent Holdings has acquired a majority stake in the company. Tencent is one of the biggest Internet services providers in China. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, however, reports are the deal was worth nearly $400M. The firms said that Riot Games will continue to maintain its headquarters in Los Angeles, and has plans to "hire aggressively" in 2011. Riot Games develops the game "League of Legends" and was venture backed by Tencent, Benchmark Capital, and Firstmark Capital. The firm had raised less than $20M in funding.