15 May 2020

SUMO GROUP PLC

(“Sumo Group”, the “Group” or the “Company”)

AIM: SUMO

ACQUISITION OF LAB42 LIMITED

Sumo Group, the award-winning provider of creative and development services to the video games and entertainment industries, is pleased to announce that it has acquired Lab42 Limited (“Lab42”), a cross-platform work for hire studio, providing co-development and full game development services, for a total cash consideration of $0.6 million.

The acquisition supports Sumo Group’s growth strategy through increased capacity, adding 29 people, and a strengthened presence in the talent hot spot of Leamington Spa. Lab42 also adds a number of new client relationships. 

The business and its Managing Director, Ed Blincoe, are well known to the Group, in particular to Sumo Digital’s Managing Director, Gary Dunn, and the team at Sumo Digital’s Leamington Spa studio, which opened in 2019.

The Lab42 studio has worked on 17 projects for console, PC and mobile, since it was established in January 2015. Past and present clients include Sega Europe Publishing, Klei Entertainment, Aspyr, Ripstone, Dovetail Games and Payload Studios.

Lab42 holds an exclusive licence to use the World Snooker Tour brand and was sole developer on the photo-realistic, sports simulation game Snooker 19 for all major consoles and PC, published by Ripstone. Lab42 is continuing development on World Snooker products and expects to launch additional games on new devices later this year. 

Other well-known titles on which Lab42 has worked include Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami, Football Manager Touch 18, Sonic Mania, Terratech and Fishing Sim World.  

The business, which operates from a single studio in Leamington Spa, was acquired from You42 Inc., a company registered in Delaware, USA. Led by Ed Blincoe, the business will continue to operate under the Lab42 name as part of the Sumo Group in the same manner as Red Kite Games and The Chinese Room.

In the year ended 31 December 2019, Lab42 reported unaudited revenue of £1.4m.  

Carl Cavers, Chief Executive Officer of Sumo Group, said:

“Lab42 is a super business and we are delighted to welcome Ed and his team to Sumo Group and to the Sumo Digital family of studios. The opportunity to buy Lab42, a business which is highly respected in the industry and well known to key members of our team, was both timely and compelling. The addition of a 29 strong, established, proven and talented team will help keep our organic growth ambitions on track, through the COVID-19 pandemic, which, as previously reported, has created some recruitment challenges.

“Lab42 also brings the exclusive licence to use the World Snooker Tour brand which supplements the Group’s strengthening Own-IP portfolio, along with some exciting new client relationships and opportunities.”

“Sumo Group continues to operate well through the unprecedented COVID-19 challenges and the team at Lab42 has also successfully transitioned to working from home. The video games market is very strong and we are seeing some great opportunities to work on new games. 

“I am very grateful to our team for their great work and continuing resilience in challenging circumstances and look forward to meeting the Lab42 team in due course as the lockdown eases.” 

About Sumo Group – www.sumogroupplc.com 

Sumo Group’s businesses provide acclaimed development and design services to the video games and entertainment industries from studios in the UK, India, and Canada.

Sumo Digital, as the Group’s primary business, is one of the UK’s largest independent developers of AAA-rated video games, having studios in Sheffield, Newcastle, Nottingham, Leamington Spa, Warrington and Pune, India. The business has acquired three studios since IPO, which operate under their own names, BAFTA award-winning The Chinese Room in Brighton, Red Kite Games in Leeds and Lab42 in Leamington Spa. Sumo Digital provides turnkey and co-development solutions to a global blue-chip client base.

Atomhawk is a multi-award-winning visual design company, with studios in Newcastle and in Vancouver (Canada), servicing the games, film and visual effects industries.