The half-billion-dollar bet that Zynga Inc. made three chief executives ago may have just paid off.
After the market closed Tuesday, the videogame maker announced that it had signed a deal with Walt Disney Co. DIS, -0.32% for the rights to develop and publish a new “Star Wars” mobile game under its NaturalMotion studio. The deal is a considerable victory for Zynga, which has struggled to earn back its 2014 investment of $527 million in the U.K.-based NaturalMotion.
Zynga ZNGA, +8.02% stock rose 8.3% to $4.05 during the regular session Wednesday.
The Disney-Zynga deal includes the option to create a second “Star Wars” game, and NaturalMotion will begin operating “Star Wars: Commander,” a mobile game Disney launched in 2014.
NaturalMotion is known for titles such as “CSR Racing,” which in the second quarter Zynga said increased bookings by 21%, while revenue dropped 4% compared with last year’s quarter. Bookings are a non-GAAP financial metric some videogame makers use as a substitute for revenue.
The NaturalMotion acquisition occurred under then-CEO Don Mattrick, a onetime Xbox executive. Mattrick left Zynga in 2015, and was replaced by Zynga co-founder and erstwhile CEO Mark Pincus. Pincus ceded the reins to the current CEO, Frank Gibeau, in March 2016.
Zynga stock has gained 1.3% in 2018, while the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.04% has gained 7%.
