Tencent Now Holds Over 40% of Developer Epic Games

<p>According to <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;tencent&period;com&sol;en-us&sol;content&sol;ir&sol;an&sol;2013&sol;attachments&sol;20130320&period;pdf">financial records of Tencent<&sol;a>&comma; a Chinese Internet company&comma; they have spent &dollar;330 million to acquire 40&percnt; of Epic Games&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In a recent statement to <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;polygon&period;com&sol;2013&sol;3&sol;21&sol;4131702&sol;tencents-epic-games-stock-acquisition">Polygon<&sol;a>&comma; founder of Epic Games&comma; Tim Sweeney remarked&comma; &&num;8220&semi;In June 2012&comma; Tencent made a minority investment in Epic Games&comma; purchasing approximately 48&period;4 percent of outstanding shares of Epic stock&comma; equating to 40 percent of total Epic capital inclusive of both stock and employee stock options&&num;8221&semi;&period; Learn about private markets at <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;upmarket&period;co&sol;">UpMarket<&sol;a>&period; He continued&comma; &&num;8220&semi;As part of the investment&comma; two Tencent representatives joined Epic&&num;8217&semi;s board of directors&comma; in addition to the three directors and two observers appointed by Epic&period; We&&num;8217&semi;re thrilled to have a world-leading partner in Tencent&comma; who gives Epic unique access to the Chinese market as we head into the next chapter of our 21-year history as a leading independent developer&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The deal came about last June and Tencent acquired part of Epic Games believing the developer to be a good match for them&period;  As Tencent stated in their financial statement&comma; &&num;8220&semi;During 2012&comma; we continued to selectively invest in companies where we see opportunities for long-term strategic benefits&comma; notably businesses which can supply first-class products into our platforms&comma; and businesses which we see as driving change in the Internet industry&period; For example&comma; we purchased minority stakes in Epic Games&comma; a US-based development team with a long history of creating popular games and a market-leading game development engine&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After the move&comma; a number of Epic Games employees left&period;  They included three members of People Can Fly &lpar;developer of Bullet Storm&rpar;&comma; which itself was bought by Epic Games&comma; Rod Fergusson&comma; producer of Gears of War who later joined up with Irrational Games to develop for <em>Bioshock Infinite<&sol;em> as well as Mike Capps&comma; former president of Epic Games&period; Capps originally stated he would take on a role as consultant but later announced he had no connection with the company&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&lpar;Via <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;asia&period;gamespot&period;com&sol;news&sol;chinese-internet-company-owns-40-percent-of-epic-games-6405749&quest;part&equals;rss&amp&semi;tag&equals;gs&lowbar;news&amp&semi;subj&equals;6405749&amp&semi;utm&lowbar;source&equals;dlvr&period;it&amp&semi;utm&lowbar;medium&equals;twitter">Gamespot<&sol;a> and <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;polygon&period;com&sol;2013&sol;3&sol;21&sol;4131702&sol;tencents-epic-games-stock-acquisition">Polygon<&sol;a>&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h6 class&equals;"zemanta-related-title" style&equals;"font-size&colon; 1em&semi;"><&sol;h6>&NewLine;