Capital Markets Day: Keywords Studios Montreal

Key insights

7 takeaways

01
Keywords reports revenue growth from €16m in 2013 to an estimated €317m in 2019, with 43 targeted acquisitions across 18 geographies contributing €207m of acquired revenue.See it on page 53
02
The company states it works with 23 of the top 25 games companies by revenue and 10 of the top 10 mobile games publishers by revenue.See it on page 8
03
The document projects the video games market growing at a 9.0% CAGR over 2018-22, from $138.7bn in 2018 to $196.0bn in 2022, citing Newzoo.See it on page 4
04
Following the VOLTA acquisition, reported churn fell from 34% before Keywords to 4% after.See it on page 20
05
Snowed In Studios grew staff from 29 at acquisition to 59 in 2019 after its acquisition by Keywords Studios in July 2018.See it on page 44
06
For the VMC integration, the stated goals included a quick integration of less than one year and no impact to production.See it on page 37
07
Keywords describes an average of c. 7,500 people on the payroll at peak times, working in over 50 languages across more than 50 studios in 21 countries on 4 continents.See it on page 7

Summary

This is the Keywords Studios Capital Markets Day presentation for Montreal, held on 14th November 2019. It sets out the company's strategy to become the 'go to' provider for external development services, describes its journey from 2009 through 2019 onwards, and covers industry growth drivers, its Montreal hub, and integration case studies of acquisitions including VMC, VOLTA, Sunny Side Up and Snowed In Studios. The presentation states the Newzoo-sourced video games market forecast of 9.0% CAGR for 2018-22, rising from $138.7bn in 2018 to $196.0bn in 2022. Revenue grew from €4m in 2009 to an estimated €317m in 2019, based on analyst-compiled forecasts. The company reports it works with 23 of the top 25 games companies by revenue. It describes 43 targeted acquisitions across 18 geographies, with €207m of acquired revenue at approximately 1.1x revenue multiple. Within the VOLTA case study, the document reports downtime reduction since acquisition at 69%, with churn moving from 34% before Keywords to 4% after.