Candy Crush Saga developer pursues Initial Public Offering

Successful casual games developer King, the company behind the hugely popular match-three adventure Candy Crush Saga, has unveiled plans this week to start taking their business to the public. King (also known more formally as Midasplayer International Holding Co.) has hired several banks including J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Credit Suisse Group AG, and Bank of America to handle their Initial Public Offering (I.P.O.).

Basically, what this means is that if the deal goes through, King and all of its properties would become public-owned stock. However, while the London-based company is seriously looking into this path, it should still be noted that no final decision in regards to the timing or pricing of the deal has been completed.

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While some video game companies might be hesitant towards going the public route for their business, given the shaky footing that Zynga Inc. has still been struggling to find after making a similar move, that doesn’t mean that others are completely shying away from this viable public option entirely. Other successful game companies like Kabam Inc. of Kingdoms of Camelot fame have also been hinting at plans to go public as early as 2014.

King has turned an annual profit every year since 2005, and given that the mobile games industry is expected to bring in sales of more than $9.9 billion in 2013, this could be the perfect opportunity to expand their winning business even further for the future.

News
January 24, 2014
CandySwipe: Already fighting the CANDY CRUSH SAGA trademark, prepared to fight CANDY too
By Jim Squires
Albert Ransom, the founder of Runsome Apps, first released CandySwipe to Android gamers on November 15, 2010 - a full four months before King debuted Candy Crush on King.com (now RoyalGames.com). Both games offer match-3 gameplay and both are built around a candy theme, but in our conversation with Ransom, he wasn't crying "clone." He's just worried about the same thing King is: consumer confusion."If you start typing 'is candy swip' into google, you will get the auto complete 'is candy swipe the same as candy crush'." It's a frustrating experience for a developer whose work came first and who, like King, was quick to trademark. The CANDYSWIPE trademark was granted to Ransom in July 2011.But being first and having a mark isn't going to do much to sway public perception - especially when a similar competitor shoots to the top of the App Store."Their game (and name) closely resembles CandySwipe; so much so, that CandySwipe is often ridiculed as a Candy Crush knock off," says Ransom. "This infringes on OUR registered trademark and good will."
News
January 2, 2014
Games Like Candy Crush Saga
By Joe Jasko
In our nice little corner of the gaming world, King's match-3 puzzle hybrid Candy Crush Saga has become the Grand Theft Auto V, the Beyoncé, and The New York Yankees all rolled up into one. Simply put, the game is huge. And when a new game manages to take the entire industry by storm like Candy Crush did, well you know what that means: tons of clones from other developers begin popping up to try and recapture the magic of the original.You've probably already played a game or two that was somewhat "like" Candy Crush Saga before, and so we thought it'd only be fitting to gather a list of some of the best like-minded experiences we've seen in one convenient place for you right here. And if you're ever planning on making your own match-3 game that plays like Candy Crush Saga, you'll want to include candy, jewels, or fruit, and throw in the word "mania" at the end of your title!