Swedish entertainment giant MTG buys Kongregate for $55M

Swedish entertainment group MTG, the owner of leading eSports companies Dreamhack and ESL, has agreed to purchase Kongregate for $55 million. 

MTG will acquire the publisher-developer from current owner GameStop once the transaction has gained regulatory approval. 

Kongregate was founded in 2006 and is based in San Francisco, California. The company started out as a browser based web gaming platform, but has since expanded into publishing and first party game development following the acquisition of San Diego studio, Ultrabit. 

Its web gaming portal currently features over 100,000 free-to-play titles that draw in millions of players each month, while it's also published 45 mobile titles that have amassed a combined 100 million downloads. 

Moving forward, MTG wants to acquire more first party game devs through Kongregate to help boost the publisher's global profile and fuel further growth. 

The entertainment specialist also hopes deals such as this, and its recent purchase of InnoGames, will help it become a major player in the online gaming sector. 

"Online gaming is one of our three digital entertainment verticals, and we are establishing a presence in a gaming industry expected to be worth some $130 billion in 2020, of which mobile gaming is the fastest growing segment," said Jørgen Madsen Lindemann, MTG president and CEO.

"Almost a third of the time people spend on mobile devices each day is spent gaming. We look forward to welcoming the high quality, hugely talented and well proven Kongregate team to MTG."