Internal emails revealed that Google explored the possibility of joining forces with Tencent to acquire a controlling interest in Epic Games as more unsealed details surrounding its 2020 legal battle with Google emerged. Read on to know more.
Google Allies with Tencent to Purchase Epic Games
Phil Harrison's Proposal and Google's Internal Plans
According to findings from the Epic v Google trial, Google's approach to acquiring Epic Games wasn't a straightforward purchase but involved the prospect of collaborating with gaming industry giant Tencent. Tencent already held a minority interest in Epic Games, the creator of the popular game Fortnite. Unredacted court documents indicate that Google considered approaching Tencent to explore various agreements.
Phil Harrison, former Google Stadia lead, spearheaded the proposal of Google's potential collaboration with Tencent to secure full ownership of Epic Games. The proposal included the option for Google to invest around $2 billion for a 20% stake in Epic Games. The court case unveiled email testimonies between Google executives, providing insights into plans for the gaming platform.
Unveiled Email Testimonies
“I‘ve taken a stab at a high-level strategic rationale for an investment in Epic. Fortnite is (or can be) the leading business driver for Google across: YouTube (already 100M+ increase in game watch time MAU) GCP (to shift 130M+ players from AWS and build an anchor tenant in games) Yeti (Fortnite + Unreal Engine support for all games),” Harrison wrote in the email.
Dave Sobota, a senior Google executive, offered an alternate route and proposed exploring Tencent as an option. This involved either buying Epic shares from Tencent to gain more control or forming a partnership with Tencent to collectively acquire the entirety of Epic Games.
“As a potential alternative, Phil is proposing we consider approaching Tencent to either (a) buy Epic shares from Tencent to get more control over Epic (unclear how that helps us without a majority share) or (b) join up with Tencent to buy 100% of Epic (and then of course we do a lot of deep commercial things with Epic),” Sobota wrote in his reply.
Epic’s Allegations Against Google
Epic Games alleged that Google's motivations were driven by a perceived threat to its official Play Store commission. Furthermore, Epic believes that Google viewed Epic's plans to distribute Fortnite through alternative channels as a "contagion" jeopardizing its monopoly profits.
Epic claimed that Google contemplated sharing profits with business partners and even considered the acquisition of some or all of Epic to neutralize the perceived threat. Epic previously had gone on to say that “Google has gone so far as to share its monopoly profits with business partners to secure their agreement to fence out competition.”
Source:
Transcripted emails by The Verge
Epic v. Google unredacted complaint
