Candy Crush developer purchased by Activision Blizzard for $5.9 billion

Now that’s a high score. King Digital Entertainment, developers of the massively successful Candy Crush Saga, has been acquired by Activision Blizzard for a staggering $5.9 billion.

Founded in 2003, the Swedish company began sweeping the mobile gaming world with Candy Crush Saga after its release in 2012. The a massively popular match-three game is known for its cheerful visuals and pick-up-put-down game play, and has hundreds of millions of active users.

“The combined revenues and profits solidify our position as the largest, most profitable standalone company in interactive entertainment,” said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, in a press release. “With a combined global network of more than half a billion monthly active users, our potential to reach audiences around the world on the device of their choosing enables us to deliver great games to even bigger audiences than ever before.”

King joins a plethora of developers who have been acquired by the Activision Blizzard giant, including Call of Duty developer Sledgehammer Games and RedOctane, publisher of the Guitar Hero series.

“We are excited to be entering into this Acquisition with Activision Blizzard,” said Riccardo Zacconi, Chief Executive Officer of King in the release. “Since 2003, we have built one of the largest player networks on mobile and Facebook, with 474 million monthly active users in the third quarter 2015, and our talented team has created some of the most successful mobile game franchises.”

“We believe that the Acquisition will position us very well for the next phase of our company’s evolution and will bring clear benefits to our players and employees.”