Further Reading Activision CEO Bobby Kotick now one of America’s highest paid executives

Activision Blizzard, the maker of World of Warcraft, announced late Monday that it would spend $5.9 billion to acquire King Digital Entertainment, the British gaming firm behind Candy Crush Saga.

King will now bolster Activision’s mobile offerings significantly. The acquisition give King a chance to develop new titles as interest in its flagship game has waned.

"The combined revenues and profits solidify our position as the largest, most profitable standalone company in interactive entertainment," Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision Blizzard, said in a statement. "With a combined global network of more than half a billion monthly active users, our potential to reach audiences around the world on the device of their choosing enables us to deliver great games to even bigger audiences than ever before."

In the same statement, Activision Blizzard said it now expects to become a "global leader in mobile gaming—the largest and fastest-growing area of interactive entertainment, that is expected to generate over $36 billion of revenue by the end of 2015 and grow cumulatively by over 50 percent from 2015 to 2019."

The company has had a much better third quarter this year than compared to the same period a year ago—it profited $127 million compared to a $23 million loss in 2014.

The deal is expected to fully close by Spring 2016 after shareholder approval and regulatory clearances.