Proceeds to accelerate Jam City’s proven growth strategy, including
acquisition of leading Montreal-based mobile game publisher Ludia, Inc.
The transaction values the combined company at an enterprise value of $1.2 billion, and proceeds are expected to support future M&A and other strategic initiatives with the expected addition of approximately $115 million of cash to the combined company’s balance sheet, including from a committed PIPE of $100 million
Combined company expects to generate $868 million in bookings and $112 million in
Adjusted EBITDA in 2022, representing 2019 - 2022E CAGRs of 23% and 30%, respectively
Chris DeWolfe, Chairman & CEO, and Josh Yguado, President & COO, will continue to lead the company and the transaction includes addition of multiple well-regarded new Board members including former BET, Viacom, and Microsoft executive Denmark West
Investor call scheduled for May 20, 2021 at 8:30 a.m. ET
LOS ANGELES and MIAMI (May 20, 2021): Jam City, Inc. (“Jam City”), a leading mobile entertainment company behind some of the world’s highest grossing and most enduring mobile games, and DPCM Capital, Inc. (“DPCM Capital”) (NYSE: XPOA), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company led by Emil Michael, today announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement that will result in Jam City becoming a publicly listed company. The transaction values the combined company at an enterprise value of $1.2 billion. Upon closing, the combined company will operate as Jam City Holdings, Inc. and its Class A common stock is expected to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “JAM”.
In conjunction with the closing of the business combination, Jam City will use the cash proceeds to acquire a leading Montreal-based mobile game publisher Ludia, Inc. (“Ludia”) from FremantleMedia Canada Inc. (“Fremantle”), bringing together two highly creative leaders in mobile gaming and further strengthening Jam City’s market position and global player network. The combined company’s well-balanced, diversified portfolio of critically acclaimed, top grossing games is expected to include Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery; Cookie Jam; Panda Pop; and Jurassic World Alive. It is also expected to benefit from a strong pipeline of tentpole owned and licensed game releases with leading brands such as DC, and some of Disney’s biggest brands, which are expected to accelerate organic growth for the next several years.
“We have built and are scaling one of the world’s leading mobile entertainment platforms by bringing art – including storylines, characters and game mechanics – together with a powerful technology platform that leverages data to drive user acquisition and live game operations,” said Chris DeWolfe, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Jam City. “We expect going public will provide us with a source of capital to accelerate our growth and advance our strategic priorities, while acquiring and teaming up with Ludia adds compelling new intellectual property and gaming genres to our catalog. Together, we believe these transactions will advance our vision to create premium, social mobile games that are an enduring part of our players’ lives.”
The combined company will be led by Chris DeWolfe and the rest of Jam City’s highly experienced management team including co-Founder, President and Chief Operating Officer Josh Yguado, and Chief Financial Officer Jae Yu. Denmark West, founding partner and Chief Investment Officer of Connectivity Ventures and former executive at BET, Viacom Media Networks and Microsoft, will join the combined company’s Board of Directors. Existing Jam City stockholders are expected to own approximately 65% of the outstanding shares of Class A common stock of the combined company at close, assuming no redemptions by DPCM Capital stockholders. Netmarble Corporation (“Netmarble”), Jam City’s valued strategic investor, will own a significant portion of the combined company.
A group of leading institutional investors, along with Netmarble, DPCM’s sponsor, and members of the combined company management teams have committed to a private investment of $100 million in Class A common stock of the combined company that will close concurrently with the business combination and, subject to any redemptions by DPCM Capital’s shareholders, there is approximately $300 million currently held in DPCM Capital’s trust account. Proceeds from the transaction will be used to finance the $175 million acquisition of Ludia from Fremantle, provide liquidity to an early investor, and pay fees and expenses associated with the transaction. It is expected that the combined company will have approximately $115 million of cash on its balance sheet, which is anticipated to be used to accelerate growth by introducing new games that appeal to broad global audiences, continuing to enhance its proprietary technology, and pursuing future M&A opportunities and other strategic initiatives.
“We believe our central technology platform, Jam City Live, is what sets us apart and provides us with a sustainable competitive advantage by driving performance and growth to create enduring franchises,” said Yguado. “We believe that games are the next-generation of social engagement, and that our longstanding relationships throughout the global gaming ecosystem provide us access to a rich pipeline of untapped, accretive growth opportunities that we are poised to capitalize on.”
“We believe Jam City is at the forefront of mobile gaming, and its unique Games-as-a-Service model has proven to sustain player retention and drive monetization,” said Emil Michael, Chairman and CEO of DPCM Capital. “We are proud to partner with Chris, Josh and the team in their efforts to continue Jam City’s growth and further define the company as a category-defining entertainment brand.”
Combined Company Overview
As a well-capitalized leader in mobile entertainment, we believe Jam City is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the large, fast-growing global mobile gaming market, a market which includes more than 2.7 billion players and that is expected to exceed $205 billion in revenue by 2023, according to Newzoo.
Jam City benefits from a world-class talent base, a global studio network and a proprietary technology platform that enables it to consistently deliver deep, rich and engaging mobile entertainment experiences that appeal to fans around the world. In addition to introducing new game franchises, Jam City has fueled growth through a successful and scalable M&A strategy that involves acquiring assets and studios that have created deep entertainment experiences and leveraging Jam City Live to improve game performance.
With the addition of Ludia, Jam City’s game portfolio will include seven forever franchises, which it considers its most enduring games with at least $100 million in lifetime bookings and receive ongoing Jam City support. Our forever franchises are anticipated to include Cookie Jam; Panda Pop; Genies & Gems; Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery; Bingo Pop; Disney Emoji Blitz[1]; and Jurassic World games (Jurassic World: The Game, Jurassic World Alive).[2] These franchises are diversified across game genres and types of intellectual property, with no single game contributing more than 20% of Jam City’s and Ludia’s combined $570 million total bookings in 2020. By leveraging its strengths to improve performance across Ludia’s portfolio, Jam City expects to generate $868 million in bookings and $112 million in Adjusted EBITDA in 2022, representing 23% and 30% CAGRs, respectively, from 2019 to 2022E.
“Joining forces with Jam City enables us to leverage their technology platform to further enhance performance across our portfolio and collaborate on exciting new projects,” said Alex Thabet, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ludia. “This combination is expected to benefit our collective stakeholders and create new avenues for sustained growth.”
In 2020, Jam City was a top 10-featured game publisher in the U.S. across the App Store and Google Play. Together with Ludia, Jam City has built an engaged global player network of 31 million monthly active users and 1.3 billion cumulative game installs as of fourth quarter of 2020. Jam City and Ludia also generated a combined 3 billion total hours played and 9 billion advertising impressions last year.
Key Transaction Terms
The boards of directors of Jam City and DPCM Capital have approved the business combination. The transaction will require the approval of the stockholders of both Jam City and DPCM Capital, and is subject to other customary closing conditions, including the receipt of certain regulatory approvals. The transaction is expected to close sometime later this year. The acquisition of Ludia will be effected pursuant to the terms and conditions of the transaction agreement entered into by Jam City and Ludia, which contains customary closing conditions.
The Raine Group (“Raine”) is acting as lead financial advisor and Fenwick & West LLP is acting as legal advisor to Jam City, and Paul Hastings LLP is acting as legal advisor to Netmarble. UBS Securities LLC (“UBS”) is acting as lead financial and capital markets advisor and Greenberg Traurig, LLP is acting as legal advisor to DPCM Capital. UBS and Raine are acting as placement agents on the private placement.
Investor Conference Call Information
Jam City and DPCM Capital will host a joint investor conference call to discuss the proposed transaction on May 20, 2021 at 8:30 a.m. EDT.
To listen to the prepared remarks via telephone dial 1-877-407-9208 (U.S.) or 1-201-493-6784 (International) and an operator will assist you. A telephone replay will be available at 1-844-512-2921 (U.S.) or 1-412-317-6671 (International), passcode: 13719988 through May 27, 2021. A webcast replay will be available at http://public.viavid.com/index.php?id=145037 through November 20, 2021.
An investor presentation detailing the transaction will be available at www.dpcmcapital.com. It will also be filed with the SEC as an exhibit to a Current Report on Form 8-K, and available on the SEC website at www.sec.gov.
About Jam City
Jam City is an award-winning mobile entertainment company providing unique and deeply engaging games that appeal to a broad, global audience. Led by CEO Chris DeWolfe, former MySpace co-founder and CEO, and COO Josh Yguado, former 20th Century Fox executive, Jam City is the creative powerhouse behind some of the highest-grossing and most enduring mobile games. Jam City’s global franchise Cookie Jam has generated $790 million in lifetime bookings and Panda Pop has generated $375 million in lifetime bookings as of Q4 2020. The company is a partner of choice for Hollywood studios, having developed immersive, narrative-rich mobile games around iconic entertainment brands. The company’s popular RPG game Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery was the #1 game in more than 40 countries at its launch in April 2018. Jam City currently has studios and talent located in Los Angeles (HQ), Burbank, Cedar Falls, Las Vegas, San Diego, San Francisco and, internationally, in Berlin, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, and Toronto. For more information, please visit www.jamcity.com.
About DPCM Capital, Inc.
DPCM Capital, Inc. is a special purpose acquisition company led by Chairman and CEO Emil Michael, formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization, or similar business combination with one or more businesses. UBS Securities LLC acted as sole book-running manager for DPCM Capital’s initial public offering. Its common stock, units, and warrants began trading on the NYSE on October 23, 2020 under the ticker symbols XPOA, XPOA.U and XPOA WS, respectively. www.dpcmcapital.com
About Ludia, Inc.
Ludia Inc. is one of Canada's leading mobile video game companies. Its high-quality portfolio includes original games based on internationally recognized brands such as Jurassic World Alive. DreamWorks Dragons: Titan Uprising, Warriors of Waterdeep, Lovelink, Jurassic World: The Game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Legends, DreamWorks Dragons: Rise of Berk, and much more. The development studio welcomes almost 400 dynamic and bright crew members. Awarded “Canada’s Best Game Maker” by Apple, Ludia was also recognized for “Best Place to Work 2018” by gamesindustry.biz and “Montreal’s Top Employers 2021”. For more information, visit ludia.com, our Facebook page Facebook/LudiaGames, LinkedIn/Ludia or Twitter/LudiaGames. For more information, please visit www.ludia.com. In 2009, Fremantle acquired an initial stake of 30% per cent in Ludia and increased its shareholding to 100 per cent between 2012 and 2014.
About Netmarble Corporation
Established in Korea in 2000, Netmarble Corporation is a top developer and publisher pushing the boundaries of the mobile gaming experience with highly innovative games including Lineage 2: Revolution, The Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross, Blade & Soul Revolution and MARVEL Future Fight. As a parent company of Kabam, and a major shareholder of Jam City and HYBE (formerly Big Hit Entertainment), Netmarble strives to entertain audiences around the world with a variety of mobile games based on its powerful franchises and collaborations with IP holders worldwide. More information can be found at http://company.netmarble.com.