Ashurst advises NCSOFT Corporation on the acquisition of a majority stake in JustPlay GmbH
Ashurst advised South Korean NCSOFT Corporation on the acquisition of a 70 per cent stake in JustPlay GmbH, a Germany-based mobile casual games and rewards programme company, for a purchase price of US$202 million.
NCSOFT Corporation is a publicly traded South Korean video game developer and publisher. Founded in 1997, the company is one of the world's best-known providers of online games and is particularly well known for massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) with long-term live services and a large international player base. According to NCSOFT, the transaction is intended to secure an important platform in the global mobile casual ecosystem and accelerate the expansion of its mobile casual games business.
JustPlay GmbH, based in Berlin, operates a loyalty gaming app that rewards users for playing mobile games with real money (e.g. via PayPal) or vouchers. The company pursues a so-called ‘play-to-earn’ model, which, in addition to payouts to users, also enables donations to charitable organisations. JustPlay is active in the mobile gaming platform sector and has recorded more than 25 million downloads of its app.
Ashurst provided comprehensive legal advice to NCSOFT Corporation and supported it throughout the transaction.
The Ashurst team for NCSOFT was led by Marina Arntzen (Partner, Corporate/M&A), Matthias Annweiler (Counsel, Private Equity) and Sina Schwirz (Counsel, Corporate/M&A). The team also included Stefan Bruder (Partner, Corporate/M&A), Maylin Heinrich (Associate, Corporate/M&A), Karen Kelat (Associate, Corporate/M&A), Sergej Bräuer (Partner, Antitrust), Dimitra Karakoulaki (Associate, Antitrust), Isabella Hunt (Associate, Antitrust) and Sarah Schaible (Transaction lawyer, Antitrust), Roman Brtka (Partner, IP), Philipp Hinz (Junior Associate, IP), Alexander Duisberg (Partner, Digital Economy), David Plischka (Associate, Digital Economy) and Eva-Maria Lassal (Junior Associate, Digital Economy), Tino Duttiné (Partner, Tax), Miriam Staatz (Counsel, Tax), Melissa Sinik (Junior Associate, Tax), Lukas Müller (Counsel, Employment), Johanna Kunze (Junior Associate, Employment), Judith Sawang (Partner, Disputes), Joerg Bartz (Senior Associate, Disputes), Akram Khuder (Senior Associate, Disputes), Tobias Bauerfeind (Senior Associate, Financial Regulatory), Natalie Fischer (Junior Associate, Financial Regulatory), Matthias Rüdt von Collenberg (Partner, Real Estate), Sascha Arnold (Partner, Regulatory) and Neele Schauer (Associate, Regulatory).
