Based in Newton, Massachusetts, WorldWinner is a privately held company
that specializes in online skill games. It hosts more than 10 million games
and awards millions of dollars in prizes every month, with games in five
categories: Card (Bridge, Spades), Word (Word Mojo, Arcade, Strategy and Sports. An
average of 350,000 games are played on WorldWinner daily. For the 12 months
ended December 31, 2005, WorldWinner’s unaudited financial statements showed
revenue of US$10.67 million, a loss before interest, taxes and extraordinary
items of US$0.68 million and net assets of US$3.91 million.
SkillJam is a multi-channel provider of skill-gaming technology and
solutions. It develops and distributes private-label gaming solutions for a
broad network of partner destination sites in the US and abroad, including
AOL, MSN’s Zone.com, Virgin Games and Lycos. Through its skill-gaming website
SkillJam.com, SkillJam offers a wide range of skill games to its over
9 million registered users. SkillJam games are also offered over the Internet,
through wireless applications (mobile) and iTV (interactive television), and
on stand-alone kiosks.
Over the short term, WorldWinner’s products will continue to be offered
on its website, www.worldwinner.com, but there will be some level of
integration in the future with the SkillJam property. The consideration for
FUN’s acquisition of WorldWinner is a payment to the sellers of approximately
US$23 million in cash.
Lorne Abony, the CEO of FUN Technologies, said, “The acquisition of
WorldWinner is a significant strategic achievement for FUN Technologies.
WorldWinner was until now our largest competitor and by consolidating the two
businesses we will achieve significant operating efficiencies, leverage and
synergies. Skill-gaming is in its infancy and we believe it makes tremendous
sense to consolidate the sector in its early stages to capture market share,
increase supplier concentration, enhance distribution and acquire customers at
low cost per acquisition. The synergies that exist in merging SkillJam and
WorldWinner are enormous, as the businesses are complementary in every way.”
Rick Weil, the President of FUN Technologies, commented that acquiring
WorldWinner means leveraging economies of scale and significantly growing
revenue. Further, Mr. Weil stated, “We will acquire millions of new non-
overlapping customers, increase our liquidity and offer customers a variety of
new online games. We also intend to move quickly to take advantage of the cost
synergies which exist in redundant operations.”
Stephen Killeen, the President and CEO of WorldWinner, commented, “We are
proud to be a part of this merger with FUN Technologies. The consolidation of
the two organizations will result in a global skill-gaming powerhouse.”
