Zynga, the creator of? Words with Friends? and? FarmVille, is making its biggest acquisition to date, paying $1.8 billion for Peak Games, at a time when video games are booming under lockdown. The deal is the latest example of Silicon Valley’s accelerating pace of mergers and acquisitions, as tech companies aim to take advantage of market turmoil during the coronavirus emergency. Istanbul-based Peak Games, maker of popular puzzle titles? Toon Blast? and? Toy Blast, will add millions of players to Zynga’s portfolio and bolster its position in the lucrative puzzle segment.? Toon Blast, which ranks among the top 10 highest-grossing mobile games, competes with the likes of King’s? Candy Crush Saga? and Playrix’s? Gardenscapes? in the so-called match three puzzle category. The acquisition, which is split equally between cash and stock, is Zynga’s largest since it paid $560 million for Finland’s Small Giant Games, which makes? Empires & Puzzles… Toon Blast? and? Toy Blast? boast a combined average of more than 12 million daily active players, Zynga said, increasing the group’s total mobile audience by more than 60 per cent… Peak is the fourth Turkish gaming company to be acquired by a foreign owner over the past five years… and the second to be bought by Zynga. The San Francisco-based online gaming business bought Turkey’s Gram Games for $250 million in 2018.

Tim Bradshaw and Laura Pitel?