Keywords Studios Acquires Liquid Development For USD9 Million (ALLISS)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Keywords Studios PLC on Thursday said it has struck a USD9.0 million deal to acquire Portland, Oregon-based Liquid Development LLC, which provides outsourced art services to the video games industry.

Keywords, which provides technical services to the video games industry, said the acquisition will allow it to tap a key area of expansion in the creation of art assets for video games.

Under the deal, Keywords will pay USD9.0 million to Liquid Development's owners, Darren Bartlett, Stefan Henry-Biskup and Fred Stockton, all of whom will remain with the company following the deal.

The consideration will be split between a USD6.3 million cash payment and USD2.7 million in Keywords shares. It will issue 1.1 million shares at 160.32 pence per share to cover that portion of the consideration. Keywords shares were up 1.3% at 161.00 pence on Thursday morning.

"The acquisition of Liquid Development significantly increases the scale of our art services business line, giving us greater penetration of this large and strongly growing market as well as increased access to this early entry point in the video games development cycle," said Keywords Chief Executive Andrew Day.

By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance

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