PLAYSTUDIOS, an award-winning developer of free-to-play casual games for mobile and social platforms that offer real-world rewards to loyal players, and Acies Acquisition Corp., a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company, announced today that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement that will result in PLAYSTUDIOS becoming a publicly listed company. Upon the closing of the transaction, the combined company will be named PLAYSTUDIOS and remain listed on Nasdaq under the new ticker symbol “MYPS.”
PLAYSTUDIOS has developed a portfolio of beautifully designed, top-ranked games that have attracted a loyal following due, in part, to the company’s unmatched playAWARDS Loyalty Program. The program lets players earn real-world rewards from a curated collection of over 80 partners and 275 entertainment, retail, travel, leisure, and gaming brands. To date, the PLAYSTUDIOS community has used its in-app loyalty points to purchase over 10 million rewards with a retail value of nearly $500 million. The Company has been named a Top Developer by App Annie, the gaming industry’s leader in app analytics and aggregated app performance data.
Acies’ management team is led by Chairman Jim Murren, formerly Chairman and CEO of MGM Resorts International, and Co-Chief Executive Officers Dan Fetters and Edward King, formerly Managing Directors at Morgan Stanley. PLAYSTUDIOS is led by Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer Andrew Pascal, who will continue to lead the combined company along with his current founder-led management team. Mr. Pascal will remain a significant equity participant in the Company.
“From our inception, we set out to create wonderfully compelling games that were free-to-play and offered real-world rewards,” said Mr. Pascal. “We’ve now demonstrated the positive, long-term impact of this value proposition with our current portfolio of apps, and we’re poised to carry that success into new products and new game genres. Becoming a public company and securing the resources and support of key institutional investors will enable us to accelerate our growth as we launch new products, pursue new acquisition opportunities, and scale up our unique playAWARDS loyalty program.”
“Within today’s vast and growing games market, PLAYSTUDIOS is unique in offering their audience the opportunity to play for fun and earn for real. They know how to make engaging and enduring games, and stand apart in having harnessed the power of a robust and full-featured loyalty program,” said Mr. Murren, Chairman of Acies. “The focus is now to take PLAYSTUDIOS platform and super-charge its growth. We have abundant initiatives, including targeted, strategic acquisitions; an expansion of the rewards program into new categories such as sports entertainment; and the exploration of opening the playAWARDS platform under a loyalty-as-a-service model. We look forward to leveraging Acies’ M&A knowledge and broad relationships for the benefit of PLAYSTUDIOS and its shareholders.”
