Nazara’s Nextwave Completes Acquisition Of Ultimate Teen Patti

Gaming major Nazara Technologies’ subsidiary Nextwave Multimedia has completed the acquisition of casual freemium card game “UTP – Ultimate Teen Patti”. 

In a filing with the bourses, the listed gaming giant on Tuesday (July 30) said that it has acquired all intellectual property (IP) rights, softwares and associated trademarks pertaining to the game after paying the final tranche of payment worth INR 1 Cr.

“… We hereby inform you that, based on the intimation received from Next Wave Multimedia… the acquisition of all the intellectual Property rights pertaining to the “UTP – Ultimate Teen Patti” casual freemium card game/ software and associated trademarks from U Games Private Limited has been completed, upon payment of the final tranche of the consideration of INR 1 Cr, inclusive of applicable taxes, in cash,” said Nazara. 

This comes three months after the company, in April this year, announced that its subsidiary will buy all the IP rights related to the casual freemium card game from skill-gaming unicorn Games24x7’s arm U Games.

At the time, Nazara said that it will buy these assets for a cumulative sum of INR 10 Cr in cash, including INR 9 Cr that was paid on April 4. The remaining INR 1 Cr has been paid now post the transfer of these assets.

Launched in early 2015, UTP is a free-to-play social casual card game and does not offer any real money winnings to the players. The game clocked a gross turnover of INR 7 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23).

On the other hand, Nazara’s Chennai-based subsidiary develops casual and multiplayer sport mobile games including the World Cricket Championship that claims to have over 100 Mn downloads across platforms over the last seven years.

It is pertinent to note that Nazara, earlier this year, completely bought Nextwave by acquiring an additional 28.12% stake in the gaming company for INR 21.6 Cr. This came six years after Nazara first acquired a majority stake in Nextwave in January 2018 and further increased its shareholding to 71.88% in May last year.

The development comes at a time when the listed gaming major is on an acquisition spree. Earlier this month, the company picked up an additional 48.42% stake in Paper Boat Apps in an all-cash deal valued at INR 300 Cr. WIth this, Nazara’s ownership in the company will now rise to 100%.

Prior to this, Nazara-backed NODWIN Gaming’s Singapore-based subsidiary also picked up an additional 43.49% stake in Freaks 4U Gaming GmbH for around INR 212.9 Cr. It also bought gaming company Ninja Global FZCO for $3.57 Mn in a cash and stock deal in June 2024.

The gaming major saw its consolidated net profit decline 98% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 18 Lakh in the fourth quarter (Q4) of the financial year 2023-24 (FY24). Meanwhile, operating revenue declined 8% to INR 266.2 Cr in Q4 FY24 compared to INR 289.3 Cr in the same quarter a year ago.