White & Case and its associated Turkish firm, GKC Partners, have advised Zynga Inc. on its USD 168 million acquisition of an 80% stake in Rollic, a mobile games developer and publisher, from Mehmet Can Yavuz, Deniz Basaran, Burak Vardal, Volkan Bicer, Mehmet Ayan, and Yunus Emre Gonul. Caliskan Okkan Toker advised the sellers on the deal, which is expected to close on October 1, 2020.
According to White & Case, “with this acquisition, Zynga enters the hyper-casual market — one of the largest and fastest-growing gaming categories on mobile. Zynga will acquire 80% of Rollic for USD 168 million in cash .... Over the next three years, Zynga will acquire the remaining 20% in equal installments at valuations based on specific profitability goals.”
Founded in December of 2018 by Burak Vardal, Deniz Basaran, and Mehmet Can Yavuz, Rollic is a hyper-casual publisher and game developer based in Istanbul, Turkey. “Eight of Rollic’s games have reached #1 or #2 top free downloaded games in the U.S. App Store, and their latest releases, Go Knots 3D and Tangle Master 3D, were the top two most downloaded games in the U.S. App Store in Q2 2020,” White & Case reported. “Rollic’s titles currently have more than five million mobile daily active users and 65 million mobile monthly active users.”
White & Case’s team included Istanbul-based Partner Asli Basgoz, London-based Partners Will Smith, Lindsey Canning, and Emmie Jones and Associates Elena Ruggiu, Lily Teh, and Michael Hekimian, Silicon Valley-based Partner Bijal Vakil, and New York-based Counsel Elodie Gal.
GKC Partners’ team included Partner Emre Ozsar and Associate Asli Gulum.
Caliskan Okkan Toker's team included Partners Sezer Caliskan and Mustafa Toker, Senior Associates Kaya Dogan and Hazal Boduroglu, and Associate Basak Kandemir.
Earlier this summer, White & Case and GKC Partners advised Zynga on its USD 1.8 billion acquisition of Peak Oyun Yazilim ve Pazarlama (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on June 3, 2020).
