Dublin-based Keywords Studios makes second acquisition this week

Video gaming firm snaps up Localizadora Latam just days after buying Sperasoft

Andrew Day, chief executive of Keywords Studios
Andrew Day, chief executive of Keywords Studios

Keywords Studios, an Irish-headquartered video gaming firm that listed in London four years ago, has made its second acquisition of the week, after completing a deal to buy the Mexican firm Localizadora Latam.

The $1.03 million (€870,000) acquisition comes just two days after the group confirmed it had snapped up game developer Sperasoft in a $27 million (€23m) deal.

Founded in 2013 in Mexico City, the company provides Latin American Spanish dubbing, localisation and sound design services for the video game, film and television markets. It clients include Warner Bros and Ubisoft. The company's founders, Alejandro González and Luis Daniel Ramírez are to stay on with the firm following the deal.

Keywords Studios already uses the services of Localizadora Latam to complement those of its wholly owned local voice recording studio, Kite Team Mexico.

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"We are thrilled to have Alejandro, Luis and the rest of the Localizadora team joining the audio service line. Their skills and experience and access to talented voice actors in Mexico will increase our capacity for Latin American Spanish recording services and their expertise in dubbing film, TV and animated series will help extend our services in those markets," said Andrea Ballista, global audio service line director with Keywords Studios.

Established in Dublin in 1998, Keywords employs more than 3,000 people, and provides localisation services to many of the leading players in the sector including Tencent, Electronic Arts, Oculus, Supercell, Activision, Sega, Nintendo and Ubisoft. Listed on the AIM, the company has more than 42 facilities in 20 countries.

Keywords earlier this week announced it had acquired the California-headquartered Sperasoft, which has production studios in St Petersburg and Volgograd, Russia, and Krakow, Poland. It employs 400 software engineers and artists in total and its clients include Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Warner Bros and Riot Games.

The company is acquiring Sperasoft for a total consideration of $27million, comprised of $22 million (€18.7m) in cash ($1 million of which is deferred for one year) and the issue of 260,049 new ordinary shares in the Irish firm.

Keywords has been beefing up its software engineering service line of late beginning with the acquisitions of XLOC and Game Sim in May and d3t in October.

Charlie Taylor

Charlie Taylor

Charlie Taylor is a former Irish Times business journalist