ByteDance is in talks with Savvy Games Group to sell Mobile Legends: Bang Bang developer Moonton Games (Shanghai Moonton Technology Co. Ltd.), according to a new report from Bloomberg, citing sources with the situation. ByteDance is also the parent company of popular short-form video platform TikTok.
ByteDance bought the developer in 2021 at a valuation of around $4 billion USD, and was on the road to selling the assets last year, but shelved the idea for unknown reasons.
These talks, according to Bloomberg’s reporting, are in the early stages and may not necessarily lead to a deal, but they do show that ByteDance may be entertaining the idea of offloading the developer to focus on its other business operations.
The deal makes sense, given the Saudi Arabian government’s continued push to buy up gaming assets as part of its Vision 2030 plan that aims to move investments away from oil and energy and into new areas such as gaming, entertainment, and tourism.
At the end of September, Battlefield 6, EA Sports FC, and Apex Legends publisher Electronic Arts announced plans to become a private company through an investor consortium that includes the Public Investment Fund (PIF), Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners in a deal valued at $55 billion. That deal has not been finalized and still has to overcome shareholder approval and various regulatory hurdles.
Savvy Games Group, the suitor in these alleged talks, is wholly owned by the Saudi Arabian government’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, or PIF. Savvy Games Group also owns Japanese fighting game publisher SNK Corporation, Monopoly Go! developer Scopely, and various esports-related assets, including the ESL FACEIT Group. Savvy also manages the PIF’s various minority investments in major publishers such as Activision Blizzard and Nintendo. The PIF also funds various esports endeavors, including the Esports World Cup and Esports Nations Cup.