Weekly News Digest #33

15 deals worth $412m, 10 of which closed, plus the rumoured $6.0B Anthropic/Decart deal. Below are the top 10.

View the Full List

WEBTOON is acquiring up to 60% of RI Games Holdings for ~$100m

US-based global storytelling platform WEBTOON Entertainment (NASDAQ: WBTN), the parent company of Naver Webtoon, is making a strategic investment in RI Games Holdings, the owner of the game studios GrayGames and Offbeat. The deal closes in two tranches: a first closing of 2,999 shares (about 20% of RI Games Holdings) for ~$33.2m (KRW 50.0B), and a second closing of the remaining 6,001 shares for ~$66.5m (KRW 100.0B), conditional on Overgeared’s commercial launch. Together, the two closings would take WEBTOON to 60% for ~$100m (KRW 150.0B) in cash. The agreement was signed with seller Redice & Company on Aug 6, 2026, and announced alongside Q2’26 results on Aug 10. It is WEBTOON’s first move to own, rather than license, the development studios that turn its webcomics into games.RI Games Holdings was founded in 2022 by Kevin Tail Han, who founded the South Korea-based webcomic studio Redice Studio behind Solo Leveling and Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint. Its development team’s credits include such mobile game titles as MapleStory M (2018), The Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross (2019), Lineage W (2021; also on PC), and Tower of God: New World (2023).

The company’s current product lineup includes three announced titles, all drawn from webcomics WEBTOON already owns the audience for: Overgeared, with 1.3 billion global views; Doom Breaker, with 0.6 billion; and Omniscient Reader, with 3.1 billion. Every title is planned as part of a franchise rather than a standalone release, with an anime adaptation alongside the game. Leading the lineup is an action MMORPG based on Overgeared, developed by GrayGames and published by NEXON for global launch on PC and mobile later this year, timed to the anime’s October 2026 premiere. The two companies plan multiple releases over the next four years.

That first launch is also the deal’s own trigger. Two-thirds of the price moves only once Overgeared is released, and the money-back right runs the other way: if the studio has not booked ~$166m (KRW 250.0B) of revenue over the considered period running from Jan 1, 2027 (or the game’s launch, if sooner) through Jun 30, 2030, WEBTOON can hand the second tranche back to the seller at broadly what it paid. The committed price is therefore genuinely smaller than the headline number suggests.

WEBTOON reported the same day. Q2’26 revenue was $338.5m, down 2.8% and up 5.2% in constant currency, with gross margin up to 26% and adj. EBITDA of $5.5m, above the top range of guidance. The platform’s audience growth is close to flat, with 156.9 million MAU (up 0.5%) and 7.5 million monthly paying users (up 1.8%). The market’s read was negative. WEBTOON closed at $8.81 on Aug 11, down 6.8% from the previous close. The quarter itself beat, but the company guided Q3’26 adj. EBITDA to $0.0m-$5.0m, below the $5.5m it had just delivered, on revenue of $358m to $368m. 

The deal lands on the smallest of the three lines reported by WEBTOON. IP Adaptations turned over $27.4m in the quarter (-3% YoY), 8% of the group’s total revenue. It includes $8m from sublicensing titles to third parties and ~$2m from merchandise and IP royalties, with the rest earned from producing adaptations commissioned by outside studios and streamers. Until now, WEBTOON has mostly been paid a fee for that work, while someone else has taken the equity upside.Founder and Chief Executive Officer Junkoo Kim put the two announcements together on the earnings call: the fund “will help us capture more value from massive global hits, evolve beyond licensing to secure strong IP rights, and gain more control over our growing adaptation slate”, while the RI Games investment “will enable us to turn proven IP into immersive gaming experiences”. Tail Han framed the studio’s side plainly: “Driven by our deep understanding of and passion for Webtoon IP, we aim to create games that deliver immersive interactive experiences, bringing fans together while extending the reach and experience of each IP.”

The fund answers the same constraint from the other direction. NW Webcomic Adaptation Fund was established on Jul 14, 2026, as a $100m closed-end vehicle, with NAVER’s N Investment as the 60% limited partner ($60m) and WEBTOON holding the remaining 40%. Its mandate is to take equity positions in adaptations of WEBTOON and NAVER webcomics across film, series, animation, and games. 

WEBTOON’s balance sheet is strong, with $583.1m in cash (as of Jun 30, 2026) and no outstanding debt liabilities. That balance sheet and a stated intent to own studios rather than license to them put a new name on the buy side of the video game market. InvestGame starts tracking WEBTOON Entertainment in our public comps universe, and we expect it to appear again as an acquirer. We will be watching whether the Overgeared MMORPG and its anime land together in the fourth quarter as planned.

Kunlun Wanwei is selling Xianlai Huyu for $111m

China-based games and AI company Kunlun Wanwei (SZSE: 300418) is selling 99% of Beijing Xianlai Huyu to Beijing Xinglan Huyu for $111.2m (RMB 750m), thereby exiting the mobile card-and-board games publishing business entirely. The business being sold is F2P digital mahjong and card games, not real-money gaming (which is prohibited in mainland China). 

The buyer was incorporated in Apr’26 and is wholly owned by Xiong Liang, who joined Xianlai Huyu as general manager in 2024 and is now its chairman and legal representative, making this a management buyout. He picked up the remaining 1% in Mar’26 and will hold 100% on completion. Kunlun collects half the price, $55.6m (RMB 375m), by Sep 30, 2026, and the rest in three annual installments of $18.5m (RMB 125m). 

Kunlun built up full ownership of Xianlai Huyu through three purchases between 2016 and 2019 (deal terms below), and is now exiting the entire business for about 80% less than what it paid. The reason is straightforward: the business’s own profitability collapsed over the same period, from $174m in net profit in 2018 to just $10.0m by 2025, as revenue fell 80%.(1) 2.4x FY2025 revenue of RMB 316m on the RMB 758m 100%-basis implied equity value. The Aug 10 announcement also reports FY2025 operating profit of RMB 208m and net profit of RMB 72m, which are 3.6x and 10.5x. Converts at the Aug 10, 2026 rate of 6.7457 RMB/USD. Each 2016-2019 purchase converts at its own announcement-date rate. 

Kunlun Wanwei states the rationale as a strategic focus: the business has “a relatively independent operating system” that differs from the AGI and AIGC (artificial general intelligence and AI-generated content) direction it is now built around. The same board meeting approved a plan to issue H shares and list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s main board. 

Mellow is how 200+ gamedev companies work with talent worldwide. Contracts, IP transfer, compliance, payments — across 50+ jurisdictions, handled in one platform. No patchwork of local providers, manual invoicing, or unresolved compliance gaps. Gaijin Entertainment, Scorewarrior, and Domini Games already run on Mellow.

Learn More

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

[RUMOR] US-based AI company Anthropic is reportedly in talks to acquire Israel/US-based AI startup Decart for ~$6.0B, which would be Anthropic’s largest acquisition to date, according to a Bloomberg report on Aug 13, 2026. Neither party has confirmed the deal. Founded in 2023 by Dean Leitersdorf, Orian Leitersdorf, and Moshe Shalev, Decart builds real-time world-model AI. Its Oasis model, which debuted in 2024 as an AI-generated, engine-free playable version of Minecraft trained on gameplay footage, generates interactive simulated environments, and its Lucy model edits live video in real time. Its chip-efficiency software is reportedly what Anthropic wants for its own training and inference infrastructure ahead of an expected autumn 2026 IPO. Decart recently raised $300m in May’26 at a ~$4.0B valuation from Radical Ventures, Benchmark, Sequoia Capital, Zeev Ventures, and Aleph VC.

US-based 3D asset and creative tools company KitBash, the parent of KitBash3D and Greyscalegorilla, announced on Aug 10, 2026, that it has acquired artist portfolio platform ArtStation and 3D model publishing platform Sketchfab from Epic Games for an undisclosed sum. Epic bought both platforms in 2021 (ArtStation in Apr’21 and Sketchfab in Jul’21) and states its own reason for letting them go: the two are “joining KitBash as Epic continues to prioritize building Unreal Engine 6, Fortnite, the developer ecosystem, and the Epic Games Store”. Epic’s Fab marketplace is not part of the sale and stays with the company. Co-Chief Executive Officer Banks Boutté said KitBash’s “first priority is to protect what users value most about each platform.” 

US-based office and technology products company ACCO Brands (NYSE: ACCO) announced Aug 14, 2026, that it is acquiring GXT Holding, the Netherlands-based owner of the Trust computer and gaming accessories brand, from pan-European investment firm Egeria for ~$57m. Trust generates ~$100m in annual revenue, according to ACCO Brands’ own statement, across keyboards, mice, headsets, and gaming peripherals sold through European and Latin American retail, e-commerce, and B2B channels, which puts the price at roughly 0.6x revenue. Trust joins Kensington, PowerA, and EPOS in ACCO Brands’ technology peripherals portfolio, which the company says will approach $500m of annual sales on a pro forma basis once the deal closes, against $1.5B of total ACCO Brands net sales in FY2025, and the buyer is targeting $5m to $8m of cost synergies within 18 months of closing. 

VENTURE FINANCING

US-based AI motion-capture company Kikitora has raised $19.7m, disclosed through an SEC Form D filed on Aug 11, 2026. The full offering was sold to 43 accredited investors, with the first sale recorded on Jul 22, 2026. The filing names no lead investor and no valuation. Founded by technical artist and Chief Executive Officer Astrid Wilde, the San Francisco company builds software that converts ordinary video into 3D performance data, removing the specialist capture hardware the process normally requires.

Singapore-based games publisher 4Divinity, the publishing arm of Nasdaq-listed GCL Global Holdings (NASDAQ: GCL), has raised $9.0m from Taiwan-based memory and storage manufacturer ADATA Technology (TWSE: 3260) at a $350m valuation, a 40% step-up on the $250m ADATA paid in Jan’26. It is ADATA’s fourth investment in the publisher, after $3m in Dec’25, $10m in Jan’26, and $10m in May’26, taking its total to $32m for about 10.2% of the company. 4Divinity publishes third-party games on Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation, bringing Western titles into Asia and Asian titles out, with a catalog that includes Black Myth: Wukong, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, and Atomic Heart. The proceeds fund title acquisitions and the distribution build-out behind a three-year agreement with Syngrid Technology HK, under which 4Divinity publishes at least four new games and Syngrid takes exclusive Greater China rights to up to seven titles. Parent GCL’s own market capitalization stood at $67.8m on Aug 14, roughly a fifth of the valuation ADATA paid for a stake in the subsidiary. 

Türkiye-based mobile games studio Rotatelab has raised an undisclosed Seed round co-led by Laton Ventures and Arcadia Gaming Partners, with participation from angel investor Mert Gür, founder and CEO of Loop Games. Its self-published casual puzzle title Cube Land passed 2 million installs within four months of launch, reaching the top 50 of the US App Store free games chart and the top 80 of top-grossing. Founded in 2020 by Abdurrahman Koçak and Salih Koçak with co-founder and angel investor Yunus Becit, the team has been shipping games together since 2016, and its previous titles have over 17 million lifetime installs. The studio moved to full self-publishing in 2024, when its first in-house release, Sort Land, passed 2.5 million downloads. Founding Partner Görkem Türk of Laton Ventures said what stood out was “the resilience and repeating success track record of the team”.

PUBLIC OFFERINGS

South Korea-based games publisher NCSOFT (KOSPI: 036570) has approved a loan facility of up to $85m (KRW 120.7B) at 4.6% interest to ArenaNet, its wholly-owned US subsidiary and the developer of the Guild Wars franchise, with the board signing off on Aug 11, 2026. The facility is drawn in installments against development progress on Guild Wars 3, the first numbered entry in the series in 14 years and the first game in the series to be released on consoles alongside PC. It was revealed at Summer Game Fest in Jun’26, with a beta test scheduled for the second half of 2027. 

NCSOFT reported its own Q2’26 results the same day, with revenue of $545.4m (KRW 770.5B) and operating profit of $123.1m (KRW 173.9B), up 101% and 1,053% YoY and 13% and 32% ahead of consensus. The shares rose 4.9% on the print, then gave back the gain over the next three sessions as brokers noted that roughly $28.3m (KRW 40B) of the operating profit came from the early recognition of a Blade & Soul 2 China contract payment, without which profit would have merely met expectations.

UA FINANCING

Israel-based social games developer Comunix has secured $20m in user-acquisition funding from Singapore-based UA financing platform PvX Partners to scale Pokerface, its mobile Texas Hold’em title built around live group video chat. Founded in 2018 and based in Tel Aviv, Comunix sits in the social casino segment and will use the facility to widen paid acquisition internationally. It is PvX’s second sizeable UA commitment of the summer, after the $100m facility it provided to Israel-based micro-drama app Shortical in Jul’26.

EARNINGS REPORTS

Share price reaction is the close-to-close move straddling the report date, from the last close before the announcement to the first close after it. Sony reported after the Friday close, so its first subsequent close falls outside this edition. Source: InvestGame.

Eight issuers in InvestGame’s tracked universe reported inside the week, the heaviest concentration of the quarter so far. Roblox produced the largest single reaction: Q2 bookings rose just 8% YoY to $1.6B, landing at the low end of guidance, and the company withdrew full-year guidance, citing “increasing variability and continued updates to our platform.” Q3 bookings were guided to $1.58B–$1.65B, implying a 14% to 18% YoY decline. Capcom posted its ninth consecutive record first quarter, with Q1 sales of ¥70.4B and net income of ¥29.2B.

PUBLIC MARKET PERFORMANCE

It was a positive week for the tracked universe: of 62 eligible companies, 36 rose, 25 fell, and one was unchanged, with a median move of 0.8%.

SHARE PRICE SIGNALS

• NEXON (+24.4%) gained 19.8% in the session on its Aug 13 Q2’26 report, which beat on both revenue, $753m (¥121.1bn, +2% YoY) and operating income, $195m (¥31.3bn, -17% YoY), against the company’s own guidance, on a record MapleStory quarter (franchise revenue up 63% YoY) and continued Arc Raiders momentum (now 16.3 million units sold). The board also declared a special dividend of $2.0bn (¥324bn, ¥415 per share), funded by $5.2bn (¥842bn) in cash reserves built up from recent investment divestitures.
• Embracer Group (+13.2%) rose 7.2% on its Aug 13 Q1’FY27 report: net sales of $412m (SEK 3,943m) grew 24% YoY (+33% organic growth YoY) and cleared the $333m (SEK 3,186m) that the company’s own analyst panel had forecast, while adj. EBIT of $16m (SEK 151m) more than doubled the $7m (SEK 69m) that panel expected, and Cash EBIT, the group’s new headline profit measure, swung to $5m (SEK 47m) from -$10m (SEK -99m). PC and Console sales in the Embracer segment rose 68% to $76m (SEK 728m) after Gothic 1 Remake sold 500,000 copies in its first week. Nordea raised its target to $9.9 (SEK 95) from $8.9 (SEK 85), and DNB Carnegie to $9.9 (SEK 95) from $9.4 (SEK 90).
• Sea (+7.5%) gained 14.6% in the session on its Aug 11 Q2’26 report, which beat on revenue at $7.79B against a $7.12B estimate, then gave back part of the move over the following two sessions. It’s kept here as the week’s largest single-day earnings reaction, even though the net weekly move has since fallen outside the top 10.
• Unity Software (+7.6%) extended its post-earnings run. Unity published Q2’26 results pre-market on Thursday, Aug 6, and the stock closed that session up 15.1%, on revenue of $546.5m against the ~$515m expected and adj. EPS of $0.28 versus a ~$0.25 consensus, a roughly 12% beat. What this week adds is the continuation, helped by Wedbush and Bank of America price-target raises on Aug 7, when BofA Securities lifted its target to $50 from $30, analyst Omar Dessouky writing that the house now sees “a Vector growth runway sustainable through year-end CY27” and reads Unity Ads’ quarter as “an inflection point”. Deutsche Bank and Benchmark also moved to Buy at $50.
• Pearl Abyss (-12.2%) fell 14.5% on its Aug 11 Q2’26 report: revenue of $136m (KRW 192.6B) landed 30% below the FnGuide consensus and operating profit of $48m (KRW 67.6B) 52% below it, as Crimson Desert revenue fell 48.9% QoQ. The company also cut its full-year operating profit guidance from $345m-$405m (KRW 487.6B-572.6B) to $223m-$244m (KRW 315.5B-345.2B), and Mirae Asset cut its target to $21.2 (KRW 30,000) from $25.5 (KRW 36,000) with a Sell rating.
• Playtika (-14.6%) stayed under pressure from last week’s reported numbers, with management guiding to the lower end of its existing ranges on a more cautious view of consumer spending. Bingo Blitz revenue fell 9.5% YoY. Goldman Sachs cut its target from $4.25 to $3.75, and Morgan Stanley cut its target from $5.00 to $4.25. The company’s market cap is now below the $1B mark.
• CyberAgent (-15.5%) fell 15.7% on Aug 10, the first session after its Aug 7 Q3’FY26 report. It raised full-year operating profit guidance to $488m (JPY 77B) from a $317m (JPY 50B) to $380m (JPY 60B) range, but the market had been expecting $539m (JPY 85B) or more, and the quarter itself showed operating profit down 23.6% YoY. Within that, the games segment’s operating profit fell 25.1% YoY even as its revenue grew 20.8% YoY.
• Playstudios (-24.9%) fell 6.0% in its Aug 11 Q2’26 report and continued to fall in every session after that. Revenue of $55.0m missed the $57.0m expected, adj. EBITDA of $7.3m missed by 18%, and the loss per share came in at $0.10 against $0.04. Daily active users fell 18.9% YoY, and the company said the economics of Tetris Block Party are hard to sustain, while The Win Zone came in below its own expectations.

EARNINGS CALENDAR: THE WEEK AHEAD

(1) Earnings scheduled for Aug 17 to Aug 23, 2026, as set by the issuers and subject to change.
Source: issuer announcements and investor-relations calendars.
This digest is published for information only. It is not investment advice and not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.