Runescape is now owned by the world's second-largest private equity firm (2024)

FAQs

What company owns RuneScape? ›

Readers will surely know that Jagex is the UK studio behind RuneScape and Old School RuneScape, though most of its other MMO ventures have winked out of existence before launch. And Jagex has been sold repeatedly over the last decade; this will make its fourth sale since 2016, when it was valued at just $300M.

London & Cambridge, UK, 9 February 2024 – Global investment firm Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG) and CVC, a leading global private markets manager, are pleased to announce that CVC Capital Partners Fund VIII and Haveli Investments have agreed the acquisition of Jagex, a leading developer and publisher of video games.

While no official monetary figure has been attached to the deal, earlier this week Sky News speculated the deal to be worth approximately £900 million ($1.1 billion). The Washington DC-based private equity firm acquired Jagex in early 2021 in a deal estimated to be worth $530 million.

Jagex was owned by U.S. investors between 2012 and 2016, by Chinese investors from 2016 to 2020, by Macarthur Fortune Holding LLC in 2020, by The Carlyle Group from 2020 to 2024, and is presently owned by CVC Capital Partners.

The Chinese company f*ckong Interactive has sold the entirety of its stake in RuneScape developer Jagex, though the sale is a result of f*ckong's existing debt rather than of Jagex's performance.

Press Release. Friday 9th February 2024, Cambridge, UK. Global private equity and investment advisory firm CVC Capital Partners (CVC Funds) and Haveli Investments today announced it has agreed to acquire Jagex, a leading developer and publisher of video games.

Runescape developer Jagex is being acquired by private equity firms CVC Capital and Haveli Investments. The news was confirmed by CVC and Jagex's current owner Carlyle Group. Earlier this week, Sky reported that CVC was set to purchase Jagex in a deal worth £900 million ($1.1 billion).

While it's common to see developers end support for their older games as costs become an issue, Jagex notes in a blog post that the decision to shut down RuneScape Classic was driven instead by the lack of compatible community safety tools and growing list of catastrophic bugs.

Jagex changes hands for the sixth time in ten years

Following speculation that began in September 2023, global investment firm Carlyle has successfully sold developer and publisher Jagex to an investment consortium comprised of CVC Capital Partners Fund VIII and Haveli Investments.

Now, investment firms CVC Capital Partners Funds and Haveli Investments have agreed to acquire the game company for £900 million/$1.1 billion, a price tag reported by Sky News. This marks Jagex's fifth corporate owner in its quarter-century lifespan.

How much does the CEO of Carlyle make a year? ›

Chief Executive Officer Harvey Schwartz was awarded a $187 million pay package in his first year at the private equity firm.

Learn more about GamesBeat Summit sponsorship opportunities here. Global investment firm Carlyle and CVC have agreed to sell Runescape maker Jagex to CVC Capital Partners Fund VIII and Haveli Investments. The deal is reportedly worth $1.1 billion, according to a story in the Financial Times.

20 years later, Jagex's MMO Runescape keeps getting bigger and has the profits to prove it. For what's now the seventh year in a row, developer Jagex has hit financial growth. In its financial highlights for 2021, the Runescape maker reported a record revenue of nearly £125 million, up 4 percent from 2020.

Larry Fink, one of the original eight Blackrock owners and founders, currently holds the positions of CEO and Chairman and is the largest individual shareholder of the company. As of 6 November 2023, he held 435,260 shares of the asset management firm.

BlackRock is not owned by a single individual or company. Instead, its shares are owned by a large number of individual and institutional investors. The biggest institutional shareholders such as The Vanguard Group and State Street are merely custodians of the stock for their clients.

Old School RuneScape is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by Jagex.

Global investment firm Carlyle and CVC have agreed to sell Runescape maker Jagex to CVC Capital Partners Fund VIII and Haveli Investments. The deal is reportedly worth $1.1 billion, according to a story in the Financial Times.

PSA: Jagex's parent company is a publicly traded PE firm in the US. You can buy stock and vote in shareholder meetings on the leadership at Jagex.

While it's common to see developers end support for their older games as costs become an issue, Jagex notes in a blog post that the decision to shut down RuneScape Classic was driven instead by the lack of compatible community safety tools and growing list of catastrophic bugs.