Sony closes acquisition deal with cloud gaming company Gaikai

Sony wants to acquire American company Gaikai. Rumors of the takeover had been circulating for over a month. The Japanese group wants to deposit $380 million for the cloud gaming company. The acquisition has yet to be approved.

Sony and Gaikai signed an acquisition deal on June 30, the Japanese company announced today. The two agree on a purchase price of $ 380 million, but according to Sony, the deal has yet to be approved, although the group does not specify which bodies should assess the deal. The Japanese seem especially interested in the technology of the American company. Sony wants to start its own cloud gaming service with the acquisition, reports Andrew House, president of Sony Computer Entertainment. House wants to combine ‘the technological power’ of Gaikai with Sony’s knowledge of gaming platforms. With the deal, Sony will not only acquire Gaikai’s technology, but will also acquire Gaikai’s servers and data centers. Rumors of the deal have been circulating since early June.

The acquisition also raises questions. Gaikai has signed a slew of contracts with Sony’s competitors in the past and the question is what will happen to those contracts. For example, the Americans entered into agreements with Samsung and LG to stream content to TVs from both companies, both of which compete with Sony in the TV market. Gaikai also entered into agreements with various game publishers to stream games. These include major parties such as Electronic Arts. It is unclear how the acquisition will affect such contracts.

Gaikai was founded in 2008 by David Perry. After an adventure with the Shiny Entertaiment he founded, good for games like Earthworm Jim, MDK, Sacrifice and Messiah, he started Gaikai together with programmer Rui Perreira. The company was initially even located at Pereira’s address in Almere. The company is now based in California.