Quatrro & D. E. Shaw group jointly acquire Babel Media

Raman Roy's Quatrro BPO Solutions and the D. E. Shaw group have acquired UK-based Babel Media Ltd., the leading international provider of specialist services to the online games and interactive entertainment industry. With this transaction, Babel becomes a part of the Quatrro group of companies.

The investments by Quatrro and the D. E. Shaw group reflect the growth potential for specialist services in the games and interactive entertainment industry and the unique capabilities of games outsourcing leader Babel. The company, founded in 1999, is one of the pioneers of outsourcing in the games industry. Babel employs over 500 staff and has offices in Brighton (UK), Los Angeles, Montreal and New Delhi, providing comprehensive games-focused localization, QA, certification, audio and print services across all platforms. According to a recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers the games industry is targeted to grow by another $27 billion to $68 billion by 2012.

This acquisition is part of Quatrro's blue ocean strategy of entering new domains and areas for outsourced services.  Raman Roy, Chairman and Managing Director of Quatrro, said ""Providing scalable resources via a global delivery model, whilst maintaining flexibility for today's top publishers and developers is crucial. We're delighted to be working with the Babel team to develop a truly international service provider to the games industry. I see this move as an integral part of Quatrro's agenda of 'Going Beyond the Existing^TM' and building strategically important businesses in underserved and uncontested market spaces."

The D. E. Shaw group simultaneously acquired an equity interest in Babel Media and Quatrro BPO Solutions, and additionally provided leverage finance for the transaction. "We have long believed that Raman Roy and the Quatrro team can develop innovative outsourced services in sectors where such services are growing", said Anil Chawla, head of the D. E. Shaw group's private equity activities in India. "Our financing for this transaction reflects our ability to finance complex transactions across multiple parties and geographies in order to best meet the needs of our portfolio companies."

Babel Media proposes to take advantage of this transaction to grow its business even more aggressively. It sees this as an opportunity to scale operations rapidly and to introduce new offerings to its clients. Babel's  co-founder, Algy Williams said "I know I speak for the entire management team when I say that with Quatrro and D. E. Shaw we have found the optimal partners to help us grow the business both in terms of their deep outsourcing experience and financial muscle. Together we have the ideal platform to grow into the world's leading provider of services to the interactive entertainment business."

As part of the transaction Algy Williams will take on the role of a non-executive Director and will continue to retain a significant shareholding in the new company.  Richard Leinfellner will take over as CEO of Babel. Richard has been Vice President and Executive Producer with Electronic Arts for the past 11 years and led EA's European outsourcing strategy. The rest of Babel's management team will continue with the company. 

Sourced From: Aadi Media Services