In order to see this embed, you must give consent to Social Media cookies. Open my cookie preferences. We’re excited to announce our acquisition by @Activision to create a leader in interactive entertainment. Release: https://t.co/OBvCieuob6 — King (@King_Games) November 3, 2015

Activision Blizzard has completed the purchase of King Digital Entertainment, the makers of Candy Crush Saga, for $5.9 billion.

The full acquisition, which was first announced in November, was confirmed in a statement on the Activision website following the approval of shareholders and Irish courts and antitrust authorities.


Bobby Kotick, Activision's chief executive, said the company now reaches more than 500 million users "making us the largest game network in the world".

The deal comes more than a year after King launched "the worst large IPO of the last 20 years", as described by its chief operating officer Stephane Kurgan in his appearance at WIRED 2015.

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In November Kotick emphasised that the deal would broaden Activision's player base, with 60 percent of King's gamers being female and none requiring special hardware to play their games.

In his talk at WIRED 2015, COO Kurgan said that the success of the company was not as rapid as most people tended to assume. "There is often the impression [...] that King.com is two guys in a garage and success came overnight. That's just not true," Kurgan told attendees at London's Tobacco Dock. "There is just a huge amount of work and passion behind this. It took [our founders] seven years to find Candy Crush, the first version was launched on the web in 2010."


And no, it isn't a one hit company, he added: Farm Heroes, one of King's lesser known games, is bigger than most gaming companies, Kurgan said.

King.com's 2014 IPO was the largest ever for a European tech company. "It was also indeed the worst large IPO of the last 20 years," Kurgan admitted to WIRED. "At the end of the day we ended 17 percent below the introductory price. If we had a culture about let's get to the IPO and that's the end of the journey I wouldn't be here with you today." That culture allowed King.com to "keep going" he said, to launch new games, "and we keep going strongly today".

Activision will launch the next instalment of its biggest adult games franchise Call of Duty later this week. Call of Duty: Black Ops III will combine the rock-solid multiplayer of past games with a new campaign and magic-like special movies.