The subsequent announcement confirmed a $1B raise at a $28.7B equity valuation and included an additional $200M investment from Sony, turning the report into a completed financing event rather than an exploratory fundraise.
First-order effects
Epic is positioned to add $1B of fresh capital while raising its implied valuation from $17.3B to roughly $28B, materially changing the financial scale at which investors assess the company.
The completed round brings Sony in for additional capital, extending its participation beyond the $250M included in Epic’s prior financing.
Second-order effects
A higher private valuation gives Epic a stronger benchmark for future fundraising and for any transactions involving its existing shareholders, whose sales featured in its 2018 round.
Sony’s follow-on investment makes Epic’s financing base more strategically concentrated around a major industry participant, rather than solely broad financial investors such as those cited in the 2020 fundraising discussions.
Third-order effects
Epic’s successive financings point to private-market capital rewarding companies that combine game properties, development technology and social products under one ownership structure.
If follow-on investments from strategic partners continue alongside large private rounds, major game-platform companies may rely less on a single source of capital and more on blended financial and industry backing.
The trend: Large private game-platform companies are attracting repeated capital rounds at rapidly rising valuations, with strategic investors joining institutional backers.
EXCLUSIVE: Epic Games, the owner of Fortnite and video chat app Houseparty, is close to concluding a $1bn fundraising that will value the company at $28bn (£20.2bn), underlining the privately held company's status as one of the pandemic's big winners. https://news.sky.com/...
This is what came to my mind for some reason when I saw that former Apple Maps executive Scott Forstall will be a witness in the Epic Games v. Apple trial
@markgurman I really can't understand that Epic Games criticizes the monopoly of Apple and Google while accepting investment from Tencent, the world's largest monopoly. I'll love to see them negotiate — It's time for both sides to grow up! 👌
Apple's witness list for the upcoming Epic Games trial includes: Tim Cook Craig Federighi Phil Schiller Apple expects Phil Schiller to do most of the heavy lifting with 11 hours of direct examination / cross-examination. You can't say Apple is holding anything back.
Do you realize how insane this Apple v Epic trial is going to be? 2 hrs of Tim Cook on the stand 3 hrs of Federighi 10 hrs of Schiller All in person. Starting May 3. https://www.macrumors.com/...
Quote from me: „the summary of [@Susan_Athey's] opening opinion filed by Epic reveals Athey thinks that both developer and consumer would be better off with an independent multi-platform app store." #OpentheAppStore #EpicGames #Apple https://twitter.com/...
@DragonManiaYT @iFireMonkey Wow they've even got Facebook, a company that hates Apple because of it's strict privacy policy. I wonder why they would want an app store with no restrictions? Epic has no idea what kind of monster they will release.
“Other executives who may also take the stand include those in charge of combating fraud on the App Store” I have a *lot* of questions for these executives. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Apple CEO Tim Cook and software chief Craig Federighi are among the technology giant's top executives who may testify in its trial versus Epic Games, according to a new Apple witness list https://www.bloomberg.com/...