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Keywords Studios has made another acquisition, picking up Brighton-based TrailerFarm ltd for a fee of up to £2 million – with £790k in cash, the remainder of the first million in 11,070 newly created shares in Keywords, and the second million payable in a year, so long as the company makes a profit before tax in the 12-month period.
TrailerFarm was founded in 2011 by brothers Tony and Dan Porter, and has worked on – you guessed it – trailers for games big and small on any and all formats. The likes of Darksiders III, PUBG, and Sega Mega Drive Classics have all seen the promo treatment from the firm, and the studio posted revenues of £1 million in the period ending June 30, 2018.
Andrew Day, Keywords’ CEO, commented: “Trailers are the primary marketing asset for video games and Keywords’ ability to produce trailers across the spectrum from cost effective small productions to the very high end trailers for AAA games positions us well in this interesting segment of the games services market. Bringing together art, animation, sound effect, music and voiced audio, trailers can further act as a showcase for our range of services and creative abilities.”
As well as the TrailerFarm acquisition, Keywords has welcomed Scott Gershin and his Sound Lab team into the fold. Not listed as an acquisition, this looks to just be the hiring of a renowned team of sound designers/engineers/technicians, with credits across a host of games such as Final Fantasy XV, Resident Evil, and Gears of War – as well as work on the Hollywood side with movies like Pacific Rim and Shrek.
All of this comes as a part of Keywords’ half year results for the period to June 30, which have been reported by the company as ‘an excellent performance’. Revenue increased by 72 per cent to €110 million (£97.8m) and profit before tax – adjusted to factor out acquisition and integration costs, which are significant – rose 67 per cent to €16 million (£14.2m).
It’s been about a month since the last Keywords acquisition, that one of UK outfit Studio Gobo/Electric Square for £26m. With the TrailerFarm purchase we’re up to nine for the year – there’s still a few months left to break last year’s record of 11 acquisitions. Exciting!
