Ninja Kiwi buys Scottish firm, doubles staff

Ninja Kiwi co-founder Chris Harris. Photo / Brett Phibbs

New Zealand game company Ninja Kiwi has bought a Scottish game developer and nearly doubled their staff.

Kumeu-based Ninja Kiwi, which this year recorded $5 million in revenue, has announced they have acquired Dundee-based game studio Digital Goldfish for an undisclosed sum.

Ninja Kiwi has produced around 60 games including the popular title Bloons, which has been played more than a billion times.

In a statement, Ninja Kiwi said it had worked closely with Digital Goldfish for a number of years developing mobile versions of its games.

Ninja Kiwi co-founder Chris Harris said Digital Goldfish had been a great partnership and had "great depth of skill in mobile development".

"As we continue to build our mobile games reach, joining forces with the Digital Goldfish team is just awesome. Blending their mobile expertise with our IP and player base has worked really well for us to date, so this acquisition is strategically very strong for us," 37-year-old Harris said.

Ninja Kiwi will take over Digital Goldfish's 15 staff in the acquisition, giving the merged company 35 employees.

Digital Goldfish co-founder Barry Petrie said the deal between the two companies "made absolute sense"

"We are delighted to become part of the Ninja Kiwi family and are excited for the future as we look to bring existing and new Ninja Kiwi IP to a variety of platforms," Petrie said.

Founded in 2006 by brothers Chris and Stephen Harris, Ninja Kiwi made the 2012 TIN100 Report's "10 Hot Emerging Companies"; with revenue growth of 66 per cent over the past year.

The company makes money from advertising on the Ninja Kiwi games site, by selling virtual currency and from their apps for Android and Apple devices smartphones and tablets.

Market researcher DFC Intelligence forecast in July that the video-gaming industry will have reached US$82 billion in five years' time, up from US$67 billion this year.