Acer SoftCapital Incorporated, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Winking Studio’s controlling shareholder Acer Incorporated, has agreed to acquire a total of 18,730,476 shares in Winking Studios for a total consideration of $3.7 million.
The separate share purchase agreements (SPAs) with shareholders Cathay Venture Inc and Taiwan Cooperative Venture Capital Corporation will result in Acer’s total deemed interest in the company increasing to 59.59%.
Executive chairman and CEO of Winking Studios Johnny Jan says: “Acer’s move underscores its ongoing commitment and confidence in our company’s growth potential. The current challenges in the gaming industry have accelerated a shift towards art outsourcing as the ideal solution for game developers to control costs while maintaining the quality of their game graphics.”
“We are very encouraged by Acer’s strong backing. Not only does it put us in a strong position to capitalise on these trends but it also paves the way for us to explore opportunities that will enhance our competitive edge in end-to-end art outsourcing and game development services,” he adds.
Winking Studios is one of Asia’s largest game art outsourcing studios. Following a slight pullback in the gaming industry post-Covid, the market is set to recover by 2.8% to US$189.3 billion in 2024, with the game art outsourcing market projected to reach US$6.3 billion by 2027.
See also: ABR Holdings’ managing director acquires 154,900 shares for 40.9 cents apiece
Shares in Winking Studios closed 0.5 cents higher or 2.22% up at 23 cents on March 18.
