Three social studios bought as Zattikka goes public

British social games outfit Zattikka has floated on the London Stock Exchange this morning.

The firm, founded by former Virgin games execs Tim Chaney (president) and Mark Opzoomer (CEO), has a target market cap of £22m on its first day of trading, with shares opening at £1 each.

Its ticker name is ZATT.

This is the UK games industry’s first social gaming floatation, and while small-scale compared to Zynga’s $1bn public offering earlier this year, it will be closely watched by other developers and publishers in the country.

Zattikka today has also announced plans to beef up its operation with three social games firms acquisitions.

These are: Swedish studio Hattrick Holdings, developer of a online football manager title; Austin, Texas-based Sneaky Games responsible for browser games Fantasy Kingdoms and Vampire Legacy plus Facebook title Syfy Monster Island; and Shanghai art and design outfit Concept Art House which has worked on Mafia Wars and World of Warcraft.

This mix of studio talent help Zattikka with its mission to "become a large scale, diverse games publisher with
products operating across growth digital platforms, and with a targeted geographic emphasis in Europe, the US and China".

Corporate site Zattikka.com has also launched this morning, boasting "Games for the planet".

In an official statement issued this morning Opzoomer, CEO, commented: “We are delighted to list on AIM to provide the capital base and incentivise the entrepreneurs joining our group.

"We begin with a strong group of companies with operations in key gaming centres in the USA, China and Europe, a mix of revenues across subscriptions, virtual goods and work for hire with an exceptional team of talent. We have a great opportunity before us to accelerate the growth of this initial group across multi-platforms to create a world class games entertainment group.”