SNK acquired – almost – entirely by MiSK, the foundation of Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia: the information dates from February 15, 2022 but it has only just emerged, for the simple and good reason that the Japanese publisher has been very discreet about its situation. Documents have been posted on the Korean site of SNK, but nothing has really been formalized on the other official broadcast channels, let alone on SNK’s social networks. It is indeed thanks to the ResetEra forums that information is now circulating and tells us that 96.18% of SNK’s shares are now held by Mohammed bin Salman, a great fan of games from the NeoGeo era, he is nice to remember. It’s not really a surprise since Mohammed bin Salman had already acquired 33% of SNK’s shares in November 2020knowing that he also invested in other publishers such as Activision, Electronic Arts and even Take Two to the tune of 3.3 billion dollars a year ago.
Looking a little closer at the details of this acquisition, we realize that it is Electronic Gaming Development Company which managed the takeover of SNK and which therefore now controls it. The total buyback amount was not disclosed, but according to the documents, the stock was bought back at a price of 37.197 won. If we do our math (and make no mistake), SNK was bought out for 522 billion won, the equivalent of $430 million. And be aware that if the tender offer was made in won, it is because SNK is a publicly traded company on the Korean market, despite its Japanese identity.
