Keywords marks a strong six months with two new acquisitions

Keywords closed another busy six-month period for acquisitions with both revenue and profit up around 70 per cent.

The rapidly growing UK company earned €110 million in the first half of the calendar year, up 72 per cent over the first half of calendar 2017. That figure includes contributions from the four companies it acquired during the period - without them, the like-for-like increase in revenue would have been 2 per cent.

Keywords' pre-tax profit for the six-month period was €16 million, up 67 per cent year-on-year.

In the first half of 2018 Keywords acquired Maximal, Cord and Lanced, Fire Without Smoke and Blindlight, improving its services in audio, marketing and talent resources as a result. It also invested €3.8 million in improving its existing facilities in Canada, the UK, Ireland, Poland, China, India, Japan and the Philippines.

The acquisition continued beyond the June 30 cut-off date, including two announcements just today: the acquisition of the Brighton-based video production company Trailer Farm, and the talent acquisition of Technicolor's SoundLab team. Led by Scott Gershin, SoundLab has worked on game franchises such as Final Fantasy, Resident Evil and Gears of War, and films such as Pacific Rim, American Beauty and Hellboy 2.

Last month, Keywords made arguably its most ambitious acquisition to date, buying Studio Gobo and Electric Square for £26 million. The two British studios have vastly improved Keywords' expertise in game development. In July, it launched a new investment arm, Keywords Ventures.