騰訊擬重金收購芬蘭手遊公司 鞏固遊戲帝國
One of China’s internet giants, Tencent, is near a deal to buy control of Supercell, the maker of the popular Clash of Clans game, in a transaction that would value the Finnish game company at more than $9 billion, a person briefed on the matter said on Wednesday.
知情人士週三透露，中國網絡巨頭騰訊接近達成收購芬蘭手遊公司Supercell多數股權的協議，後者是熱門遊戲《部落衝突》(Clash of Clans)的開發商。在該項收購中，Supercell的估值將超過90億美元。
If completed, the deal would show the growing might of China’s online behemoths. Tencent, along with Alibaba and Baidu, has become a sprawling empire of internet businesses. With a market value of about $211 billion, Tencent controls WeChat, the popular messaging service in China, as well as a number of online multiplayer games hosted through its QQ portal.
這項交易一旦達成，將會展示出中國網絡巨頭日益增長的實力。騰訊同阿里巴巴和百度一起，已經成爲了一個龐大的互聯網商業王國。騰訊控股目前市值約爲2110億美元，旗下包括在中國頗受歡迎的即時通訊服務微信，以及在QQ平臺上發佈的數款網絡多人遊戲。
A deal for Supercell would be the biggest takeover by any of China’s so-called BAT trio of Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, according to data from Standard & Poor’s Global Market Intelligence.
據標準普爾全球市場情報(S&P Global Market Intelligence)的數據，這項購買Supercell的交易，將會成爲百度、阿里巴巴和騰訊——中國所謂的BAT——所完成的最大的一筆收購交易。
Buying Supercell, which has produced a string of mobile game hits with Clash of Clans, Hay Day and Clash Royale, would further bolster Tencent’s presence in the mobile game market. Tencent is already China’s dominant online game company, accounting for about 32 percent of revenue from the country’s online game market in 2015, according to Niko Partners, a research firm. The company also owns Riot Games, the maker of League of Legends, a blockbuster PC battle game with an estimated 98.4 million players and $150 million a month in revenue, according to SuperData Research.
收購Supercell這樣一家曾出產過《部落衝突》、《Hay Day》和《部落衝突：皇室戰爭》(Clash Royale)等多個手遊的公司，將會進一步擴大騰訊目前在手機遊戲市場中所佔的份額。騰訊目前已經是在中國占主導地位的網絡遊戲公司。市場研究公司Niko Partners稱，2015年，騰訊從中國的網絡遊戲市場中獲得的收益份額約佔32%。除此之外，騰訊還持有Riot Games ——熱門電腦遊戲《英雄聯盟》(League of Legends)的開發商——的控股權。據研究公司SuperData，《英雄聯盟》約有9840萬玩家，每月收益1.5億美元。
Supercell is one of a handful of standout successes in the mobile game business, where it has proved difficult for many companies to make money — or at least to hold on to their prosperity. Clash of Clans, Supercell’s best-known game, was introduced nearly four years ago and has remained one of the most popular apps for smartphones and tablets.
Supercell是少數幾家在手遊業務上取得成功的公司之一。很多公司都難以從手機遊戲上賺錢——或者至少堅持到繁榮發展的時刻。《部落衝突》作爲Supercell最著名的遊戲，在近四年前被引入市場，此後一直都是在智能手機和平板電腦上最受歡迎的遊戲應用之一。
On Apple’s App Store, Clash of Clans is currently the fourth-highest-grossing app in the United States, while Clash Royale is No. 7. Both games are free, but like nearly all of the most lucrative mobile titles today, they generate revenue through microtransactions — purchases of virtual currency that help players advance more quickly.
在蘋果的應用商店裏，《部落衝突》目前在美國的下載總量排行榜上名列第四，《部落衝突：皇室戰爭》排列第七。兩款遊戲都是免費下載，但像如今幾乎所有最賺錢的移動應用一樣，他們的盈利都是通過微型交易獲得的——玩家通過購買虛擬貨幣，來幫助自己在遊戲中更快升級。
And players buy a lot of virtual goodies from Supercell. In March, the company reported revenue of $2.33 billion for 2015, up from $1.78 billion the previous year, and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of $964 million, up from $592 million. It said at the time that it had only 180 employees, relatively few for a company of its financial scale.
玩家會從Supercell中購買許多虛擬的貨幣和裝備。今年3月份，公司報告稱2015年盈利23.3億美元，比上一年17.8億美元的營收有所增加。將利息、稅、折舊和攤銷等包含在內，總共的收益是9.64億美元，多於去年的5.92億美元。而且公司表示當時只有180名僱員，以其資金規模來看人數相當精簡。
In April, Supercell was making just under $4 million a day in revenue from Clash of Clans, SuperData Research estimates. In 2015, Supercell introduced Clash of Clans in China.
4月份，據研究公司SuperData估計，Supercell每天從《部落衝突》遊戲中獲得的收入不到400萬美元。2015年，Supercell將這款遊戲引入了中國。
Under terms of the proposed deal, Tencent would buy the roughly 73 percent stake in Supercell that is currently held by SoftBank, the Japanese telecommunications provider, said the person who was briefed and who spoke on condition of anonymity. Supercell’s founders would remain at the company.
一位不願透露姓名的消息人士稱，根據草擬的協議規定，騰訊會收購日本電信運營商軟銀(SoftBank)旗下的Supercell約73%的股份。Supercell的創始團隊將繼續留在公司。
A representative for Supercell declined to comment. Representatives for Tencent and SoftBank could not be reached.
Supercell的代表拒絕對此置評，同時也無法聯繫到騰訊和軟銀的代表。
