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Saudi Arabia's MiSK Foundation Now Owns 96.18% Stake in SNK
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Game developer SNK announced on February 15 that Electronic Gaming Development Company, the company wholly owned by Saudi Arabian organization MiSK Foundation (Mohammed bin Salman Foundation), now owns a 96.18% stake in SNK after purchasing more shares.
Electronic Gaming Development Company initially invested US$216.5 million in SNK in November 2020. It acquired a 33.3% stake in the company at the time, with a plan to purchase an additional 17.7% stake in the future to raise its ownership to 51%.
Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, is the organization's founder and chairman. The organization and the Saudi Arabian animation studio Manga Productions (also owned by MiSK Foundation) have hosted an internship program with SNK in the past. Manga Productions has also collaborated with Toei Animation on a number of anime projects, including "The Woodcutter's Treasure" short, Future's Folktales, and The Journey.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman established MiSK in 2011. In February 2021, the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence assessed that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Jamal Khashoggi. Khashoggi was a Saudi journalist who relocated to the United States and wrote for The Washington Post newspaper before being killed in 2018. The Saudi Arabian government "completely reject[ed]" the U.S. assessment.
SNK is known for its franchises such as King of Fighters, Metal Slug, Fatal Fury (Garō Densetsu), and Samurai Shodown (Samurai Spirits), and the NeoGeo console. SNK most recently released its The King of Fighters XV game on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Windows 10, Steam, and the Epic Games Store on February 17.
Source: SNK
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