LONDON â€" The Japanese telecommunications giant SoftBank agreed on Tuesday to buy a 51 percent stake in the Finnish online gaming company Supercell for around $1.5 billion.
The deal signifies the meteoric rise of Supercell, whose games include Clash of Clans and Hay Day. The company was founded in 2010 in Helsinki and has focused on creating games for the growing number of tablet computers worldwide.
In a blog post on Tuesday, Ilkka Paananen, Supercell’s founder and chief executive, said the investment would help the company expand into more international markets, particularly in Asian countries like Japan and South Korea.
As part of the deal, the Japanese gaming company GungHo Online Entertainment, which is part owned by SoftBank and already collaborates with Supercell on a number of games, will invest 20 percent, or $300 million, of the total $1.5 billion, while SoftBank will buy the remaining stake in the Finnish company.
“The combination of tablets, mobile and the free-to-play business model has created a new market for games,†Mr. Paananen said in his blog post. “The strategic investment from SoftBank helps us to accelerate towards our goal.
By acquiring a stake in Supercell, SoftBank is positioning itself to take advantage of an increase in mobile gaming that has been fueled by rising smartphone use and high-speed data connections.
The Japanese telecommunications company is looking to expand its presence in the United States after buying Sprint Nextel for $21.6 billion earlier this year.
On Tuesday, SoftBank’s chief executive, Masayoshi Son, said the deal to acquire a controlling stake in Supercell would help the Japanese company to expand its presence in the growing mobile gaming sector.
“In our quest to become the number 1 mobile Internet company, we scour the globe in search of interesting opportunities,†he said in a statement. “Right now some of the most exciting companies and innovations are coming out of Finland.â€
The deal comes just over a month after Nokia - the quintessential Finnish technology company that has struggled to keep pace with rivals like Apple and Samsung - agreed to sell its handset and services business to Microsoft for $7.2 billion.
While Microsoft will retain a large presence in Finland, many in the Finnish tech industry have questioned what the sale of Nokia’s handset division, which once dominated the global smartphone market, will mean for their country’s broader technology industry.
In his blog post, Mr. Paananen of Supercell, which is reported to be making around $2.4 million a day from its online games, directly connected the deal with SoftBank with the issues facing Nokia.
“Our operations remain in Finland, our management team remains in Finland and in San Francisco, and we continue to pay taxes in Finland,†said the Supercell founder. “I think more and more people in this country are realizing that there is life after Nokia.â€
