Joining the board of Modern Times Group (MTG)
I’m very pleased to be joining the board of Modern Times Group (STO: MTG-B) who I feel are one of the most interesting mobile games publishers in the west right now. This level of involvement with a company isn’t something I do very often but Maria, Arnd and the team are extremely compelling:
They are great operators. MTG has been executing a disciplined M&A strategy in the mobile gaming space over the last few years which most recently added Plarium (who develops the well-known Raid title) to a line-up that includes Hutch, InnoGames, Ninja Kiwi, PlaySimple and Snowprint.
They have grown their platform capabilities. As well as their midcore and casual portfolio, MTG also have (especially post-Plarium) a powerful suite of internal optimisation tools.
They have an exciting pipeline of games and opportunities. Which I can say precisely zero about.
They are very well positioned. In a consolidating industry, MTG’s portfolio mix (midcore and casual), platform, scale and public listing makes them a very high quality acquirer.
I spend a lot of time looking at companies. MTG is one of those rare places where product, capital, and structure intersect in a way that actually creates value. If you’re interested in trying to see what I see, their Q1 investor presentation is extremely readable.
As a nice coincidence, it’s also quite delightful to be reunited with InnoGames, who (unbeknownst to Hendrik and the team) appeared on some of my slides fifteen years ago when I was trying to convince then pre-meme GameStop to acquire a European browser games publisher!