GGRAsia – Light & Wonder closes cash deal for final 17pct of SciPlay

Light & Wonder closes cash deal for final 17pct of SciPlay

Oct 24, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Top of the deck, World

Gaming equipment and content provider Light & Wonder Inc says it has completed its previously-announced cash deal to acquire the 17 percent of digital games business SciPlay Corp that it did not already own.

SciPlay’s shareholders are to receive US$22.95 for each share of SciPlay class A common stock they own, Light & Wonder said in a Monday filing.

SciPlay will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Light & Wonder, and SciPlay common stock will no longer be publicly traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.

The acquisition price was 14.7 percent higher than Light & Wonder had offered in May, when a US$20.00-per-share deal had been described as worth US$422 million.

In the Monday filing, Matt Wilson, president and chief executive of Light & Wonder, was cited as saying: “Fully integrating SciPlay with Light & Wonder creates a more streamlined organisation with the financial strength to accelerate our cross-platform strategy and deliver enhanced shareholder returns.”

He added: “SciPlay continues to achieve record-setting results and market outperformance, and we are confident that together we will build on their considerable momentum.

“As one company, we will drive improved collaboration between our talented teams to build and deploy the most engaging games across our digital and land-based platforms and create a more seamless, best-in-class player experience.”

Light & Wonder reported revenue of US$731 million for the second quarter, up 19.8 percent from the US$610 million a year earlier, and up 9.1 percent from first-quarter 2023’s US$670 million.