Well, that comes in the form of a subsidiary of the Saudi crown prince’s foundation. Electronic Gaming Development Company (EGDC). This company which, in turn, is owned by the Mohammed bin Salman Foundation (MiSK Foundation), comes from Saudi Arabia and holds about 96.2% of SNK’s shares. Initially, back in November of 2020, the MISK Foundation acquired a 33.3% stake (about a third) in SNK as part of a “strategic investment”. It should be noted that at the time, the Foundation planned to purchase up to a 51% stake in the company. A year and a half later, they’ve made a far bigger investment. In a press release regarding their larger-than-expected investment, the MISK Foundation said the following: SNK isn’t the only company that Saudi Arabia has invested and purchased stakes in, either. Back in February, Bloomberg reported that Saudi Arabia’s Public Interest Fund (PIF) now holds stakes of more than 5% in Capcom and Nexon. The investment decision will also enhance SNK’s strong capabilities, which have many innovative intellectual properties in the gaming sector with real potential for development\ [sic] in the future in line with anticipated growth in the electronic gaming industry. If the value of those two were combined, it would be worth over $1 billion. The PIF also invested more than $3.3 billion to buy stock in gaming giants Activision Blizzard (which is set to be acquired by Microsoft), EA, and Take-Two in the fourth quarter of 2020, as reported by Al Jazeera. We’ll continue to update if more information regarding these share purchases comes out.
