Sumo Group Limited is a British video game

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

based in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

. It was formed in December 2017 as the

parent company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

for

Sumo Digital is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a ''rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring ('' dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by th ...

and Atomhawk, followed by its

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pa ...

later that month. Sumo Group's other subsidiaries are

Pipeworks Studios Pipeworks Studios is an American video game developer based in Eugene, Oregon. The company was founded in November 1999 by Dan White and Dan Duncalf and works to provide full development, co-development, and live operations to video game publis ...

(acquired in September 2020) and Secret Mode, a publisher established in March 2021. After purchasing a minority stake in Sumo Group in November 2019,

Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. () is a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the wo ...

wholly acquired the company in January 2022.

History

Carl Cavers, Paul Porter, Darren Mills and James North-Hearn, four former members of the defunct

Infogrames Studios Gremlin Graphics Software Limited, later Gremlin Interactive Limited and ultimately Infogrames Studios Limited was a British software house based in Sheffield, working mostly in the home computer market. Like many software houses established in ...

, established the developer

in 2003. It was bought by

Foundation 9 Entertainment Foundation 9 Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game company based in Irvine, California. The company was formed in March 2005 through the merger of video game developers Backbone Entertainment and The Collective. History Foundation ...

in March 2008 before Cavers, Porter, Mills and Chris Stockwell completed a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena of ...

of the studio in November 2014. In December 2017, Sumo Group was formed in December 2017 as the

for Sumo Digital and its Atomhawk subsidiary. Sumo Group had its

on the

(LSE) later that month. In November 2019, the Chinese conglomerate

acquired 15 million shares of Sumo Group, representing a 10% stake. Sumo Group acquired

in October 2020 and opened a publishing label, Secret Mode, in March 2021. In July that year, Tencent and Sumo Group agreed that Tencent would, through its subsidiary Sixjoy Hong Kong Limited, wholly acquire the company for per share (143.3% of the shares' previous

closing price An open-high-low-close chart (also OHLC) is a type of chart typically used to illustrate movements in the price of a financial instrument over time. Each vertical line on the chart shows the price range (the highest and lowest prices) over one u ...

of ), totalling . At the time, Tencent was Sumo Group's second-largest shareholder at 8.75%. In September 2021, Sumo Group acquired

Auroch Digital Auroch Digital is a game development company based in Bristol, UK. It previously ran the GameTheNews initiative, a project that produced news games on a variety of topics, for which it was included in the 2014 Nominet 100 list of companies doi ...

, a

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city i ...

-based developer, . Tencent's acquisition was approved by the

Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS, commonly pronounced "Cifius" ) is an inter-agency committee of the United States government that reviews the national security implications of foreign investments in U.S. compani ...

in December 2021, followed by the

High Court of Justice The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC (Englan ...

on 13 January 2022. Sumo Group was consequently delisted from the LSE on 17 January and became a subsidiary of Tencent through the latter's Sixjoy Hong Kong Limited holding subsidiary. On July 21st 2022, Sumo Group sold Pipeworks Studios to ''

RuneScape ''RuneScape'' is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by Jagex, released in January 2001. ''RuneScape'' was originally a browser game built with the Java programming language; it was la ...

'' developer

Jagex Jagex Limited is a British video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based at the Cambridge Science Park in Cambridge, England. It is best known for ''RuneScape'' and ''Old School RuneScape'', both free-to-play massively multipl ...

for an undisclosed sum.

Subsidiaries

* Atomhawk ** Atomhawk Canada ** Atomhawk United Kingdom *

* Secret Mode *

** Lab42 ** PixelAnt Games ** Red Kite Games ** Sumo Leamington ** Sumo Newcastle ** Sumo Nottingham ** Sumo Pune ** Sumo Sheffield ** Sumo Warrington **

The Chinese Room The Chinese Room (formerly Thechineseroom) is a British video game developer based in Brighton that is best known for exploration games, such as '' Dear Esther''. The company originated as a mod team for '' Half-Life 2'', based at the Unive ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2017 establishments in England 2017 initial public offerings 2022 mergers and acquisitions British companies established in 2017 British subsidiaries of foreign companies Companies based in Sheffield Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Tencent divisions and subsidiaries Video game companies established in 2017 Video game companies of the United Kingdom Holding companies of the United Kingdom Holding companies established in 2017