Tech Dealmaker Awards

Crowley

Turbine Inc. produces massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) set in alternate worlds, but set its own sights on two new frontiers: the up-for-grabs Asian market and new game platforms. Turbine, based in Westwood and with 330 employees, offers the only MMORPGs based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and “Dungeons & Dragons” games.

Turbine announced on June 4, 2008, that it had raised $40 million in equity financing led by Time Warner and GGV Capital, along with existing investors, Highland Capital Partners, Polaris Venture Partners, Tudor Ventures and Columbia Capital. The game developer has now raised a total of $88 million in venture financing, beginning in February 2005.

GGV is a leader in expansion-stage capital investments in the United States and China, and “has a very strong understanding of online entertainment and the gamespace,” said Turbine CEO Jim Crowley. “And they have a keen understanding and on-the-ground presence in multiple countries in Asia.” Time Warner, through Warner Brothers, produces the Lord of the Rings films, including two upcoming films around Tolkien’s The Hobbit, due in 2011 and 2012. Turbine owns and controls any MMORPG based on Tolkien’s works through 2017. A Time Warner executive called the online interactive entertainment a huge growth market, and cited Turbine’s “unique capabilities.”

“We’re also investing in what we call our cross-platform technology,” says Crowley, stretching from the PC platform to the Xbox 360 and Sony Playstation 3, “which will dramatically extend our market reach.”

— Dann Anthony Maurno

Category

Strategic Investment

The Deal

Turbine Inc. raised $40 million in equity financing from Time Warner Inc., GGV Capital and existing investors, Highland Capital Partners LLC, Polaris Venture Partners, Tudor Investment Group and Columbia Capital, announced June 4, 2008.

Key Executives

CEO Jim Crowley

Deal advisers

Highland Capital Partners, Polaris Venture Partners, Tudor Ventures and Columbia Capital

• Platinum Sponsor:
• Gold Sponsors: Capital Source
  Silicon Valley Bank
  TM Capital
  Vitale, Caturano & Co.
• Silver Sponsors: Capital IQ
  Citizens Bank
• Supporting Sponsors: Mass High Tech
  Preston Productions
  Trinity Communications

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