Keywords Studios plc is an Irish

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services company based in

Leopardstown Leopardstown (), historically called Ballinlore, is a suburb of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, at the foot of the Wicklow Mountains. With institutional lands and a large racecourse, it is divided by the M50 motorway (Ireland), M50 motorw ...

. Founded in 1998 by Giorgio Guastalla and Teresa Luppino, the company initially provided localisation services for

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before transitioning to the video game industry. Andrew Day replaced Guastalla as the

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in 2009 and the company completed its

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on the

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in 2013. Since then, Keywords Studios has acquired several other companies, including Certain Affinity, Blindlight, Climax Studios, Forgotten Empires, GameSim, Heavy Iron Studios, High Voltage Software, Smoking Gun Interactive, Tantalus Media, and Wicked Workshop. In October 2024, Keywords Studios was acquired by a group of investors led by

EQT AB EQT AB is a Swedish global investment organization founded in 1994. Its funds invest in private equity (EQT Private Capital Europe & North America), infrastructure (EQT Infrastructure), real estate (EQT Real Estate), growth equity, and ventur ...

History

Giorgio Guastalla, an Italian-Irish businessman who had previously worked for

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

office, founded Keywords Studios in 1998 with his wife, Teresa Luppino. The company was established in

(a suburb of Dublin) under the name Keywords International and originally provided localisation services for

. A regional office in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

was established in 2001. Starting in 2004, Keywords International became incrementally involved with the

. Andrew Day, a

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

native and long-time friend of Guastalla, joined the company in March 2009 at Guastalla's request and became its

(CEO). At this time, Keywords International had 50 employees and revenues of . Day perceived the supplier side in the video game market as highly fragmented and intended to turn Keywords International into a "one-stop shop" for various stages of video game development. He further aimed to change the company's significant reliance on a single client. Day instituted a five-year plan that shifted the company's focus entirely towards video games and was to lead to a flotation in 2014. The previously major client significantly reduced its business with Keywords International in 2010. Further regional offices were opened in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

in December 2009, in

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in 2010, and in

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in 2012. In June 2013, Keywords International announced its intent to float and sell 56% of its shares on the

Alternative Investment Market AIM (formerly the Alternative Investment Market) is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange that was launched on 19 June 1995 as a replacement to the previous Unlisted Securities Market, Unlisted Securities Market (USM) that had been in opera ...

of the

. By this time, the company had 120 employees and a pre-tax profit of on revenues of . In this process, Keywords Studios Limited was incorporated in the United Kingdom. On 8 July, it was renamed Keywords Studios plc and wholly acquired Keywords International. Numis Securities served as the

financial adviser A financial adviser or financial advisor is a professional who provides financial services to clients based on their financial situation. In many countries, financial advisors must complete specific training and be registered with a regulatory ...

and ran the offer, and Keywords Studios floated on 12 July, raising . Ross Graham was subsequently brought on as the

chairman The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...

. Before the flotation, PEQ Holdings (a company associated with Guastalla, Giacomo Duranti, and Marco De Sanctis) owned 75.1% of the shares, with Day holding the remaining 24.9%. The flotation reduced PEQ Holdings's ownership to 29.9% and Day's to 13.2%. Cazenove Capital Management acquired 12% of the company, alongside other investments by Artemis and Legal & General. With the initial public offering completed, Day envisioned an acquisition-based approach to grow Keywords Studios. Liquid Violet, a provider of voice production services, was its first purchase in January 2014. At the end of 2016, Keywords Studios had 2,600 employees, including 120 at its Dublin headquarters. The acquisition of VMC in October 2017 added 1,300 employees to Keywords Studios's headcount. According to Davy Group, this acquisition turned Keywords Studios into the largest provider of functionality

quality assurance Quality assurance (QA) is the term used in both manufacturing and service industries to describe the systematic efforts taken to assure that the product(s) delivered to customer(s) meet with the contractual and other agreed upon performance, design ...

. In July 2018, the company announced the creation of Keywords Ventures, a

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

fund aimed at supporting startups. Keywords Studios acquired 45% of AppSecTest as the first under this fund. In the same month, Igor Efremov was hired as the chief creative officer and Andrew Brown as the

chief marketing officer A chief marketing officer (CMO), also called a chief brand officer (CBO), is a C-suite corporate executive responsible for managing marketing activities in an organization. The CMO leads brand management, marketing communications (including adver ...

. Jon Hauck was brought on as Keywords Studios's

chief financial officer A chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization who is assigned the primary responsibility for making decisions for the company for projects and its finances; i.a.: financial planning, management of financial risks, ...

(CFO) in November 2019, replacing David Broderick after he had announced his resignation. At the onset of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in 2020, Day and Hauck took a 20% pay cut. Staff criticised the company's handling of the pandemic, stating that the operations had remained largely unchanged despite health safety concerns. In May of that year, the company raised to acquire firms weakened by the pandemic. In January 2021, Keywords Studios hired Sonia Lashand Sedler as its

chief operating officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...

(COO). Citing health reasons, Day took a temporary leave in March 2021, with Hauck and Sedler becoming joint interim CEOs. In June, Keywords Studios announced Day's impending retirement and that he had formally stepped down as the CEO and a member of the

board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

, only remaining on the board in an advisory role for six months. Bertrand Bodson, the former chief digital officer for

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, succeeded Day on December 1, 2021. In January 2022, Guastalla stepped down as a non-executive director of Keywords Studios to focus on his other businesses. He was followed shortly by Sedler, who left the company in March 2022, citing personal reasons. Graham unexpectedly died in March 2023. As he had been due to retire later that month, the non-executive director Don Robert had already been designated as his replacement. Hauck succeeded Sedler as COO on 1 July 2023, while Robert Kingston was hired as the CFO. Kingston had previously acted in that role for the UK and Ireland division of Flutter Entertainment. Alongside the companies Active Fence, Take This, and Modulate, Keywords Studios established the Gaming Safety Coalition in March 2024 to improve

mental health Mental health is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave, and how t ...

practices in online gaming. In May 2024, Keywords Studios announced it would accept a takeover offer from the Swedish investment firm

of in cash per share, a total of . The offer was a 73% premium of the previous share price of , which rose to in the wake of the announcement. The final deal for per share was announced in July and is pending shareholder approval. In the proposal, EQT would acquire 51% of the company, while Temasek and CPP Investments would each obtain 24.5%. The transaction was announced as completed on 24 October, and Keywords was delisted from the London Stock Exchange.

Corporate affairs

Keywords Studios is headquartered at Whelan House in the South County Business Park of Leopardstown. In September 2017, the company leased the entire ground floor and parts of the first and lower ground floors of Whelan House for . Italicatessen, a food import business founded by Guastalla and Luppino in 2002, provides catering services for Keywords Studios's headquarters. As of 2023, Keywords Studios employs 12,340 people.

Operations

Day stated that not releasing products under the Keywords Studios name contributes to it staying "under the radar". The company's businesses are divided into seven segments: art, engineering, functional testing, audio recording, translation, localisation, and player support.

Accolades

At the 2019 Technology Ireland Awards, Keywords Studios received the "company of the year" and "outstanding achievement in international growth" awards.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2013 initial public offerings 2024 mergers and acquisitions Companies based in Dublin (city) Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange Irish companies established in 1998 Translation companies Video game companies established in 1998 Video game companies of Ireland