Benzinga | Nov 11, 2021 08:50AM EST

Tencent Acquires Stake In Japanese Creative Studio For $44M

* Tencent Holdings Ltd (OTC:TCEHY) had tacitly acquired a 90% stake in Japanese creative studio Wake Up Interactive Ltd for over 5 billion yen ($44 million) in September, Bloomberg reports.

* The studio has several Nintendo Co Ltd (OTC:NTDOY) Nintendo Switch hit games.

* Wake Up owns Tokyo-based Soleil Ltd, which developed Nintendo Switch hit Ninjala and helped create Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes. Soleil is known for producing high-quality action games for consoles, PCs, and smartphones.

* Tencent and NetEase Inc (NASDAQ:NTES) hired fresh talent in Japan over the past two years to acquire valuable intellectual property in anime and video games and decrease their revenue dependence on the domestic China market.

* In October, Kadokawa Corp (OTC:KDKWF) admitted Tencent plans to pay 30 billion yen for a 6.86% stake in the publishing company.

* The two Chinese game titans have also acquired or taken a stake in numerous smaller Japan-based game developers.

* Their focus has been on small studios and talented individuals contemplating leaving a more prominent company to set up their creative operation. In most cases, the deals are kept secret from the public over competitive grounds.

* Price Action: TCEHY shares traded lower by 0.29% at $61.66 in the premarket session on the last check Thursday.