Games firm adds to Leamington Spa headcount with £500,000 acquisition
Video game developer Sumo Group has bought Lab42 in a deal worth almost £500,000.
The deal means Sumo Group will add 29 people to its Leamington Spa office.
The business and its managing director, Ed Blincoe, are well known to Sumo, in particular to Sumo Digital’s managing dDirector, Gary Dunn, and the team at Sumo Digital’s Leamington Spa studio, which opened in 2019.
Lab42 holds an exclusive licence to use the World Snooker Tour brand and was sole developer on the photo-realistic, sports simulation game Snooker 19 for all major consoles and PC, published by Ripstone. Lab42 is continuing development on World Snooker products and expects to launch additional games on new devices later this year.
Other well-known titles on which Lab42 has worked include Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami, Football Manager Touch 18, Sonic Mania, Terratech and Fishing Sim World.
The business, which operates from a single studio in Leamington Spa, was acquired from You42 Inc., a company registered in Delaware, USA. Led by Ed Blincoe, the business will continue to operate under the Lab42 name as part of the Sumo Group.
In the year ended 31 December 2019, Lab42 reported unaudited revenue of £1.4m.
Carl Cavers, chief executive of Sumo Group, said: “Lab42 is a super business and we are delighted to welcome Ed and his team to Sumo Group and to the Sumo Digital family of studios. The opportunity to buy Lab42, a business which is highly respected in the industry and well known to key members of our team, was both timely and compelling. The addition of a 29 strong, established, proven and talented team will help keep our organic growth ambitions on track, through the COVID-19 pandemic, which, as previously reported, has created some recruitment challenges.
“Lab42 also brings the exclusive licence to use the World Snooker Tour brand which supplements the Group’s strengthening Own-IP portfolio, along with some exciting new client relationships and opportunities.”
“Sumo Group continues to operate well through the unprecedented COVID-19 challenges and the team at Lab42 has also successfully transitioned to working from home. The video games market is very strong and we are seeing some great opportunities to work on new games.
“I am very grateful to our team for their great work and continuing resilience in challenging circumstances and look forward to meeting the Lab42 team in due course as the lockdown eases.”
