From the Press Release
Temple Run creator Imangi Studios today announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Lima Sky, the developer of the Doodle Jump video games franchise, for a total of $1 billion in an all-cash deal. The agreement also provides for an additional $200 million earn-out cash based on the achievement of certain milestones.
Lima Sky is a leader in making video games for mobile phones, a growing technology sector. Their break-out hit game Doodle Jump has seen over 200 million downloads to date and the company recently launched a new title Doodle Jump Race. With more than 500 million downloads of Temple Run and Temple Run 2, Imangi’s series continues to dominate the mobile gaming space.
Imangi’s idea to buy Lima Sky was sparked from the simple, disruptive idea of creating a game that will have 1 trillion installs. Igor Pusenjak, CEO of Lima Sky, elaborated: “Imangi told us they wanted to combine the endless jumper with the endless runner to create the ultimate gaming hit, and we were sold. The combined game Doodle Temple Jumping Run will be out later this year.”
“We’ve always been big fans of Doodle Jump and when Doodle Jump Race came out we just knew we had to get Lima Sky under our wing no matter what,” said Keith Shepherd, co-founder of Imangi Studios. “We are excited to bring the talent and IP of Lima Sky into the Imangi family. There’s a natural synergy between our products and we look forward to exploring more opportunities as we continue to grow.”
Fans of Doodle Jump should not worry. After the acquisition Lima Sky will continue to operate independently. “I can assure everyone that nothing will change,” said Natalia Luckyanova, co-founder of Imangi Studios.. “We’ll only add the Imangi Studios logo to the start-up screen, make the game 3D, and replace Doodle the Doodler with Temple Run’s Guy Dangerous.”
The transaction is expected to close no later than April 1, 2015.