Take-Two’s $12.7 Billion Acquisition of Zynga Combats Apple’s Privacy Policy
Take-Two Interactive’s (TTWO) $12.7 billion acquisition of mobile gaming giant Zynga (ZNGA) announced this week means the company behind “Grand Theft Auto” and the maker of “Farmville” will officially be under the same roof.
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick says the tie-up will save the companies $100 million and generate $500 million in net bookings, a measure the games industry uses to count revenue from the sale of games, subscriptions, and in-game purchases. But there’s a third reason the purchase makes sense: it will help the companies fight Apple’s iOS privacy changes.
Last April, Apple (AAPL) introduced a privacy feature in iOS 14.5 called App Tracking Transparency that allows users to choose whether they want apps to follow them across the internet. That’s put a damper on the ability for game developers to make cash off of advertisements in their titles when relying on ad networks run by the likes of, say, Google (GOOG, GOOGL).
