Foundation 9 acquired by Digital Bros

Creating world-class gaming.

September 18, 2014

London, 18 November 2014 - GP Bullhound, the international technology investment bank, acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Foundation 9 Entertainment, Inc. (“Foundation 9”) on the sale of Sumo Digital Ltd (“Sumo Digital”) to management backed by NorthEdge Capital LLP (“NorthEdge”) and the sale of Pipeworks, Inc. (“Pipeworks”) to Digital Bros S.P.A (“Digital Bros”).

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James North-Hearn, the CEO of Foundation 9, commented: “Having been one of the original founders of Sumo Digital, I am pleased to see the business has secured the right backing to allow it to continue its growth trajectory. GP Bullhound has been extremely helpful every step of the way, utilizing its global team and network of relationships while showing total dedication throughout the process.”

Raphael Galante, CEO of Digital Bros, added: “We are delighted to welcome the Pipeworks team to the Group, we feel its addition brings to the Group strong technological capabilities, greater operational flexibility and an improvement in quality and timings on individual projects.”

This represents the completion of GP Bullhound’s 27th and 28th transactions in 2014.

Inquiries
For inquiries please contact: Alec Dafferner, Partner, alec.dafferner@gpbullhound.com, or Hugh Campbell, Managing Partner, hugh.campbell@gpbullhound.com

Pipeworks
Pipeworks is a leading Games-as-a-Service studio creating the next generation of live games for console, PC, tablet, and mobile players. One of the longest-standing US game developers, Pipeworks was founded in 1999 and acquired by Foundation 9 Entertainment in 2005. With over fifty people at its studio in Oregon, Pipeworks has created hits such as Godzilla, Zumba Fitness, Deadliest Warrior, and the upcoming Rollercoaster Tycoon World.

Sumo Digital
Sumo Digital is a world-class multi-platform game development studio based in Sheffield, UK and Pune, India. Sumo was acquired by Foundation 9 in 2007. The company has seen significant growth since it was created and now employs over 270 people worldwide. Sumo works with leading game console manufacturers and tier 1 game publishers and has a history of category-leading games including Little Big Planet 3, Forza Horizon 2 (Xbox 360), Xbox Fitness, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and Virtua Tennis.

GP Bullhound
As dealmakers in technology, GP Bullhound provides independent strategic advice on mergers and acquisitions and private placements to entrepreneurs, companies and investors. By combining a true passion for innovation with great access to global buyers and capital across Europe, US and Asia, GP Bullhound has completed transactions for many category leaders, recently selling Fetch to Dentsu Aegis, Flowfact to ImmobilienScout24, Textlocal to IMImobile, Pingdom to SolarWinds, Cambridge Technology Partners to Atos, Pozitron to Monitise, Tunigo to Spotify, and Fjord to Accenture.
The firm was founded in London in 1999.