Take-Two Interactive officially buys Zynga in massive gaming deal

The purchase is complete — the gaming industry shrinks further

This past January, Take-Two Interactive announced a partnership with Zynga (of FarmVille fame), where Take-Two would purchase Zynga at a $12.7 billion valuation. At the time, the deal was still in motion, one of the largest in the gaming industry, and as of Monday, Take-Two has announced the completion of its combination with Zynga, where Zynga stockholders received $3.50 in cash and 0.0406 shares of Take-Two common stock per share of Zynga common stock.

The above tweet from Zynga leads directly to the press release announcing the recent merger. While there isn't much information within, it's worth noting that the $12.7bn merger is one of the largest in the industry, eclipsed by Microsoft's bold proposal to purchase Activision Blizzard for $68.7bn (which is supposedly moving fast), but definitely more than Microsoft's purchase of Bethesda for $7.5bn.

The recent news of this completed merger is a big step for Take-Two; as you just know the company is itching to utilize Zynga's talents perfected by pumping out free-to-play casino games. So it would seem we are headed towards an unknown and possibly dark future where a handful of companies own all of the big brands, which rarely results in quality games made for fun, but instead games made cynically for profit, just like all of 2K's sports games, a company conveniently owned by Take-Two (imagine that). This is why I'm fearful to think what Take-Two will do with Zynga's knowledge and talent, as I bet microtransactions and piecemeal live service games will be a big part of the merger.