GTA 5 Parent Company Pays $250 Million To Acquire This Mobile Game Dev

Take-Two Interactive, the company that owns Rockstar Games and 2K Games, announced today that it has paid $250 million to acquire the mobile game developer Social Point.

The Barcelona, Spain-based developer is best known for its two big free-to-play games, Monster Legends and Dragon City, which have reached a combined 180 million downloads.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said in a statement that this acquisition helps the company further diversify its lineup and to deeper embed itself in the "fast-growing free-to-play mobile gaming space."

"We believe that Social Point's deeply engaging mobile offerings will be a perfect complement to our business," Zelnick said. "Social Point is one of the few mobile game developers that has a proven track record of growing revenues and delivering multiple hits, and we expect this growth to continue given the company's exciting development pipeline."

For its part, Social Point co-CEOs Horacio Martos and Andres Bou said in their own statement, "We are thrilled to have Social Point become part of an organization that shares our commitment to quality and innovation, and we look forward to being part of Take-Two's continued success for many years to come."

In addition to the $250 million acquisition price, Take-Two said it will pay up to an additional $25.9 million in cash and shares of Take-Two stock to Social Point if certain milestones are met.

Take-Two will share more details on its acquisition of Social Point during the company's upcoming earnings briefing, which is scheduled for Tuesday, February 7.

The company already has an established mobile game business, as there are various Grand Theft Auto games available for iOS and Android devices. Additionally, Rockstar's Bully was recently released for smartphones.