Wizard101 Developer KingsIsle Entertainment Purchased By Gamigo's Parent Company

It can be hard to keep track of who exactly owns what when it comes to corporate ownership. Sometimes the companies aren't forthcoming about exactly what they own or who owns them (think Daybreak Game Company) and sometimes we just grow so used to naming one entity that we don't realize they have a higher-up actually calling the shots.

That might be the case with Media and Games Invest. If you didn't know, that's the European company that owns gamigo, which itself owns the games formerly under the Trion Worlds banner, and just a few days ago announced the acquisition of another significant player in the free-to-play gaming industry: Wizard101 and Pirate101 creator Kingsisle Entertainment.

The deal is for $126 million, with up to an additional $84 million that may be paid as earn-out payment, all to be paid in cash. The press release announcing the sale said that it would be "transformative for MGI as it is expected to materially increase the size and profitability" given Wizard101's "stable revenues and high EBITDA margin." A conference call and stream for investors and media is planned for Tuesday at 11:00 a.m. CET (2:00 a.m. Pacific).

We don't talk about it too extensively here at MMOBomb, but 10 years ago when I was working for Beckett Massive Online Gamer, Wizard101 was huge, and we had partnerships and advertising campaigns galore with KingsIsle. It claimed 20 million accounts created in 2011, and while that's probably slowed down since, it's still a popular and profitable entity, judging by the financial numbers revealed in the transaction.