Cyprus based entertainment company Outfit7, best known for widely-downloaded mobile application Talking Tom is reportedly sold to United Luck Consortium, a group of Asian investors lead by Ou Yaping, for $1 billion.
Besides in Cyprus, Outfit7 has operations in Slovenia, the United Kingdom, and China.
The company, as reported by several Slovenian websites was put up for sale in November last year. Since, many investors were claimed to be interested in acquiring the company, but as officially confirmed by the team of Outfit7, the company was sold to United Luck Consortium. This is considered to be the biggest foreign takeover in Slovenia’s history.
To date, the company’s Talking Tom and Friends franchise has more than 5.6 billion app downloads worldwide, attracted 10.3 billion views, with 10.6 million combined subscribers on YouTube, with two seasons of 52 episodes. Recently, on January 12 a new application Talking Hank was launched.
Besides Talking Tom and Talking Hank, among the most downloaded applications are Talking Angela, Talking Ginger and Talking Ben.
According to Venturebeat, the well known Goldman Sachs International served as exclusive financial adviser and Taylor Wessing LLP as legal adviser to Outfit7 and its shareholders.
Outfit7 was founded in 2009 by Samo Login (CEO) Slovenian fellow who previously worked for the Slovenian search engine portal Najdi.si and seven other entrepreneurs.Talking Tom debuted in 2010, becoming an instant hit. Today, the company has about 200 employees. According to the company’s website, Outfit7 is one of the fastest-growing multinational family entertainment companies on the planet, best known for its global phenomenon Talking Tom, which grew from an instant app success into a fully-fledged media franchise in the years since its launch.
Besides free mobile applications, the company develops games, a CGI animated series and web shorts, a global licensing and merchandising program, and chart-topping YouTube videos. Talking Tom and Friends franchise is known and downloaded in 230 territories around the world.
To date, the company has won many awards such as the ‘Best Animated Series’ at the 2016 Cablefax Program Awards; honorable mention in ‘New Animated Series for 6-11 years’ category at the 2016 Cynopsis Kids !maginationAwards, the Tillywig Toy & Media Award; the ‘Best iPad Game: Kids, Education and Family’ award and many more.
