Keywords Studios acquires Canadian firm Snowed In

Video games industry services provider Keywords Studios has acquired Snowed In Studios for a total consideration of up to CAD 4m, it announced on Friday, from its current owners Jean-Sylvain Sormany, Tim Vito and Evan Hahn.

The AIM-traded firm said Snowed In, founded in 2010 and based in Ottawa, offered engineering and co-development services to the video-games industry, and had a “strong” global reputation and well-established relationships with clients such as Ubisoft and Bethesda.

It has 29 employees, all working in-house in its office in Ottawa, led by the current owners, who would remain with Snowed In to drive its growth as part of Keywords.

Snowed In reportedly achieved EBITDA of CAD 0.8m in its last financial year ending 31 January 2018, from revenue of CAD 2.4m.

Under the terms of the acquisition, Keywords said it was paying an initial CAD 2.67m in cash, and will issue 37,983 new ordinary shares to the sellers on the first anniversary of the acquisition, which would then be subject to orderly market provisions for a further 12 months.

Deferred consideration of up to CAD 0.2m would be payable in cash to the sellers 18 months after the acquisition.

“The addition of Snowed In to the group will add strength and scale to our recently established engineering service line, and enable Snowed In to take advantage of the group's very strong presence in the region to support its growth,” said Keywords Studios chief executive officer Andrew Day.

“Having grown the engineering service line from nothing in May 2017, we now employ over 300 software engineers in multiple regions, and I'm delighted that Jean-Sylvain, Tim, Evan and their highly talented and creative team are joining the Group as we continue to grow.”