Privately-held Epic Games, maker of the uber-popular Fortnite video game, is rapidly catching up to the big publicly traded videogame companies -- at least in terms of valuation.
Within the videogame industry, Activision Blizzard (ATVI +0.00%) is the big dog, valued at more than $56 billion. Electronic Arts (EA 0.39%) lags the leader at a market cap of $36.5 billion, while Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO 0.36%) trails with a $15.6 billion valuation.
Image source: Epic Games.
Epic is close to securing a deal to raise $750 million in private funding from existing shareholders including KKR & Co. and new investors T. Rowe Price Group Inc. and Baillie Gifford, reports Bloomberg. It is not known whether other early investors in the company, which include names such as Kleiner Perkins, Vulcan Capital, and Tencent Holdings (TCEHY +0.76%) -- which already owns 40% of Epic -- will participate.
The investors are reportedly valuing the entire company at "about $17 billion."
Epic's implied value is therefore up about 13% from the $15 billion private valuation reflected in the company's last funding round, held in October 2018. In the interim, Epic Games has expanded its business through the purchase of Houseparty, an app that facilitates group video chats on mobile devices and PCs, which it purchased before the app surged in popularity amid the lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
