Mail.Ru Group Limited (MAIL.IL), one of the largest Internet companies in the Russian-speaking Internet market, announces the acquisition of 100% of ESforce for $100 million.
\nEsforce is one of the largest eSports companies globally and the largest in Russia and Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n
Mail.Ru Group CEO (Russia) Boris Dobrodeev said on the transaction: \u00abWe are very pleased that the talented team who have been responsible for building this business will all be remaining with the business. We will be looking to leverage our unrivalled position inside of the social networks and gaming in order to drive ESforce to even great success.\u00bb<\/p>\n
In 2017 ESforce ecosystem accounted for 116 million users, 440 million sessions and over 120 million hours watched of online content through streaming platforms.<\/p>\n
2017 revenues are expected to reach the $19 million which means around 150% growth on the year before.USD and EUR made around 60% of total revenues while ads and rewards composed almost the 80% of revenues coming from merchandising, events and content. With the investment announced today MAIL.IL expects ESforce revenue growth between 80-100%.<\/p>\n
ESforce properties sold to MAIL.IL include: two world-class clubs (Virtus Pro and SK); Epic eSports Events, organizing EPICENTER and a series of tournaments among teams in Dota 2 and CS:GO; 14 websites, 209 social media groups and video production studios creating live streams, attracting over 82M of annual unique users; Media Cybersport.ru and Cybersport.com (which include CyberBase, the largest database in global eSports); Yota Arena in Moscow (one of the world’s largest eSports tournament venues of over 5,000 m2 and over 1,000 seats); trading and analytics platforms; and eSports’ international merchandising retailer Fragstore.<\/p>\n
MAIL.IL will pay in cash for all these properties $100m less any outstanding debt at closing, with a further KPI-related payment at the end of 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mail.Ru Group Limited (MAIL.IL), one of the largest Internet companies in the Russian-speaking Internet market, announces the acquisition of 100% of ESforce for $100 million. Esforce is one of the largest eSports companies globally and the largest in Russia and Eastern Europe. Mail.Ru Group CEO (Russia) Boris Dobrodeev said on the transaction: \u00abWe are very …<\/p>\n