Keywords Studios buys video games specialist Liquid Violet

16th Jan 2014 14:08

Keywords Studios, which provides technical services to the video games industry, has bought Liquid Violet for an initial cash consideration of 300,000 pounds. A further £1.3m will be paid contingent upon Liquid Violet, a video games voice production services company, achieving certain financial targets in the three years to March 31st 2016. Keywords said the acquisition will extend its client base and market penetration.Liquid Violet specialises in the management, on behalf of major video game publishers including Blizzard Entertainment and 2K, of the pre-production and post-production stages of localised voice-over assets for incorporation in the finished games. Chief Executive Andrew Day said: "We are pleased to have acquired Liquid Violet, which occupies an attractive niche, with healthy margins and good growth prospects and which will extend the group's audio services offering to its global customer base. "We expect the use of audio in video games to grow thanks to the much enhanced capabilities of the new generation of consoles that were launched in November 2013 and as the capabilities of mobile devices continue to develop."Shares in Keywords rose 8.44% to 128.50p at 14:18 on Thursday.RD