iCandy acquires games studio Storms from Singtel, AIS, SK Telecom

iCandy Interactive Limited has entered a Share Purchase Agreement to acquire 51% of Digital Games International, or “Storms“, a Southeast Asia-based games development, publishing and licensing company. Current shareholders have the option to sell the remaining 49% to iCandy within an agreed period of time.

Storms was founded in March 2020 by Singtel, Advanced Info Service (AIS) and SK Telecom, the largest mobile network operators in Singapore, Thailand, and South Korea respectively. Storms has developed and published casual and hyper-casual mobile games besides its business-to-business model leveraging Super Apps and Telcos product offerings. It also develops its own instant gaming and gamification features.

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Storms’ ended 31 December 2021 with approximate revenues of SGD 4.1 million (AUD 4.3 million), a 14x surge from FY 2020 reported revenues. Likewise, it has a healthy balance sheet position with approximately SGD 7.2 million (AUD 7.6 million) of cash and cash equivalents. This acquisition will allow iCandy to leverage its distribution network to target more APAC markets.

“We are looking forward to partnering with iCandy Interactive as iCandy develops its Metaverse gaming ambition. This will further our collective strategy to better serve our respective customers with unique and engaging content.”
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Lim Cheng Cheng, Singtel’s Group Chief Corporate Officer and Chairman of Storms’ Board

iCandy is already well positioned to make AAA games for the Metaverse, having previously acquired Lemon Sky Studios. iCandy is set to extend the reach of its projects by leveraging Storms’ publishing network in the fastest growing market for gaming experiences.

“iCandy with its game studios and development expertise makes a great complementary addition to Storms, which is a mobile game publisher and has expansive distribution advantages via strategic Telcos and other partnerships in the region. Together, they will be well positioned to create and publish games for the Metaverse and Web 3.0, as well as to bring Korean games into the Southeast Asian market.”

Jae Shin Lee, Vice President and Head of Global Business Development of SK Telecom

“We recognise many synergies between Storms and iCandy, with Storms making a great complementary addition to iCandy’s horizontally-integrated gaming business model. At he same time, this acquisition strengthens Storms’ ability to be a trailblazer in delivering more fun to the gaming community through efficient game development time and at scale.”

David Yin, CEO at Storms

No projects have been announced at this juncture following the iCandy and Storms acquisition, so stay tuned for those.