The newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reported on Tuesday that Japanese telecommunications operator SoftBank and GungHo Online Entertainment are purchasing 51% of the Finnish games company Supercell for 1.1 billion euros. SoftBank is the world's third-largest telecoms operator.
SoftBank's share of the deal is 80% and GungHo's 20%, according to Supercell's company blog.
Since being established in 2010, the Finnish mobile games company has developed and launched popular games including Clash of Clans and Hay Day.
Supercell employs 130 people and is headquartered in Helsinki. The paper says that one prerequisite for the deal was that it will remain based in Finland. And the Japanese ownership will be routed through a Finnish-registered company.
Last spring, the American business publication Forbes ranked Supercell as the fastest growing company in the games sector. In 2012, Supercell showed a 30 million euro profit on 78 million euros in gross revenues. At the time, the company employed 52 people.
Supercell has confirmed the deal to Yle.
Sector expects more successes
The Finnish game industry organization Neogames saw the news of the sale as natural result of Supercell's rapid growth. According to it director, KooPee Hiltunen, there are many game companies in the country with the potential for major success.
At present, there are an estimated 180 game companies in Finland, most that have been in business for less than two years.
"For its size, Finland is a significant player in the game sector. For example, on the mobile games side, Finland is probably the most successful country in relation to its population," Hiltunen told Yle.
A survey by Neogames showed that over 80% of Finnish game companies are developing games for mobile platforms.
