by Jeremy Waxman on Dec 16, 2015
Chinese online company Tencent Holdings already owned quite a bit of equity in Riot Games, the maker of League of Legends. Today, it was announced that Tencent has purchased the remaining equity of Riot Games.
Riot states this will help them better compensate their employees, with a portion of the statement reading:
"As a result of our continued growth and changing circumstances, we're shifting to a new structure to recognize and reward Rioters' contributions - and that first involves a big change to our existing equity program. As part of this effort, our majority investor, Tencent, recently purchased the remaining equity of Riot Games. This allows us to move away from a Riot equity program towards a cash based incentive program that allows Rioters to share in Riot's success."
It's an interesting decision by Riot, but one they clearly intend to benefit their employees. The financial details of the deal were not mentioned, but one would have to assume Tencent paid a considerable sum.
In addition to this new development with Riot Games, Tencent is an investor in Activision Blizzard, and also owns a stake in Epic Games.