DLA Piper advises Stillfront Group on the acquisition of gaming company Sandbox Interactive

DLA Piper has advised Stillfront Group AB, a leading free-to-play gaming studios company, on the acquisition of Sandbox Interactive GmbH, a rapidly growing and highly profitable gaming company based in Berlin and developer and publisher of the popular cross-platform free-to-play sandbox MMORPG Albion Online. The sellers are the four co-founders of Sandbox.

The consideration payable to the sellers will be paid partly in cash and partly in shares in Stillfront. The total upfront consideration of the 100 share purchase of Sandbox shares amounts to EUR 130 million on a cash and debt free basis. Closing of the transaction, subject to the usual conditions, is expected to be no later than 30 December 2020 with Sandbox being consolidated into Stillfront’s group financial reporting from 1 January 2021.

Stillfront is a Swedish company headquartered in Stockholm, hasaround 1,000 employees with key markets in the US, Germany, Middle East & North Africa, France and Canada. The acquisition will provide Stillfront with a platform and genre diversification as it broadens its current portfolio with a successful title within the MMORPG genre. Furthermore, the acquisition will enable substantial scaling and collaboration potential within Stillfront with the mobile launch of the game planned for the first half of 2021.

The co-founders and other key employees will remain within Sandbox and be part of the management of Sandbox post-closing of the transaction.

The DLA Piper team under the joint leadership of partner Dr Nils Krause and senior associate Dr Moritz von Hesberg (both Corporate/M&A, Hamburg) also comprised of partners Semin O (Antitrust), Dr Björn Enders (Tax, both Frankfurt), Dr Kai Bodenstedt (Employment, Hamburg), Dr Christian Schneider (Lit&Reg), counsel Gabriele Engels (IPT, both Cologne), Sergej Bräuer (Antitrust, Frankfurt), senior associates Dr Andreas Keller (Lit&Reg, Cologne), Kais Torchani (Finance, Frankfurt), Florian Jeske (Hamburg), Georg Haberkorn (both Employment, Munich), Dr. Nico Brunotte (Hamburg), Dr. Stephanie Reuvers (both IPT, Cologne) and associates Rune Jelte Weltz, Christine Uwase (both Corporate/M&A, Hamburg), Anastasia Max (Tax), Alexander Rösch (Antitrust, both Frankfurt), Nina Oldehaver (Employment) as well as transaction lawyer Dan Li (Corporate/M&A, both Hamburg).

In addition, a Corporate team from DLA Piper in Stockholm consisting of partners Peter Ihrfelt, Peder Grandinson and associates Björn Torsteinsrud, Rebecca Fallberg and Erik Rosberg also advised on the transaction.