Carlyle acquires Jagex

Katharine Hidalgo
25 January 2021

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The Carlyle Group has acquired a majority stake in video games developer Jagex.

The firm is currently investing from Carlyle Europe Partners V, which closed on €6.4bn in October 2019. The fund was 23% deployed in June 2019 and is looking to back European upper-mid-market companies. Previous funds in the strategy have invested in companies with enterprise values typically in excess of €200m.

Carlyle is expected to pay more than $530m, the purchase price of the business in 2020, according to the Diary Telegraph.

The company has six new director appointees, including Tyler Parker, Carlyle's vice-president of buyouts.

Previous funding
In October 2005, Insight Ventures provided a round of growth funding to Jagex, acquiring a 35% stake.

In February 2011, Insight Ventures, along with Spectrum Equity and The Raine Group, acquired a majority stake in Jagex. Insight Ventures raised its stake to 55%.

Platinum Fortune acquired Jagex from previous owner Shanghai Fukong Interactive Entertainment in 2020, paying $530m.

Company
Jagex is a video games developer based in Cambridge and founded in 2000. It employs almost 400 people and generated a profit of £49m from revenues of £111m in 2020, according to the Daily Telegraph.

People
The Carlyle Group – Tyler Parker (vice-president, buyouts).