Australian gaming firm iCandy Interactive acquires Lemon Sky Studios

ASX-listed international gaming company iCandy Interactive Limited announced its acquisition of one of the leading Southeast Asian gaming studios, Lemon Sky Studios.

The acquisition cements both companies as “a force to be reckoned with” as the largest indie video gaming company in Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.

This acquisition is valued at A$44.5 million ($32.4 million) to be fulfilled together with cash and newly issued iCandy shares.

The two companies now have 450 full-time professionals in AAA game development, game art, animation, and 3D modelling. It is expected that they will generate no less than A$17 million ($12.36 million) in revenue per annum.

This will form the largest pure-play game development company on the Australian Stock Exchange, and in Australia and Southeast Asia too.

Kin W. Lau, Chairman of iCandy Interactive, describes the recent development as a “phenomenal acquisition and an excellent addition to iCandy Interactive.”

“We now have this unparalleled capability in the region, we will focus a fair bit of our newly gained superpower to make high-quality games for the metaverse, arguably the most important development for the gaming world,” Lau said.

Cheng-Fei Wong, CEO of Lemon Sky Studios, said they are positive that the merger will “encourage creative working methods and bring about new ideas”.

Lau added that the merger of their expertise with a studio like Lemon Sky is ‘truly phenomenal’ and they look forward to the outcome of integration of their teams.

With their merger, both companies will be a leading powerhouse through regional expansion plans in developing and AAA gaming on blockchain for the open metaverse.

Metaverse is a virtual world that allows work and play, shared by millions (or billions) of people which is built with next-generation technology encompassing Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Video and Gaming technologies.

Meanwhile, iCandy also announced that it raised A$40 million ($29.1 million) from institutional investors via a placement that is described as heavily oversubscribed.

Animoca Brands, iCandy’s cornerstone investor, led the latest fundraising round.