Beijing, Jan 24 (IANS): Tencent Games, the world's largest gaming company with hits like PUBG: Mobile and Arena of Valor, has announced a $148 million offer to acquire all shares of Norwegian game developer Funcom.

Back in October 2019, Tencent acquired a 29 per cent stake in Funcom from KGJ Capital to become the company's largest shareholder.

Tencent already owns big stakes in many leading gaming developers, such as Riot Games, Epic, Supercell, Ubisoft, Paradox, and Frontier.

"We are impressed by Funcom's strengths as a developer of open-world multiplayer, action and survival games. Funcom has a strong track-record in developing new titles with long life span. We are glad to deepen our relationship with Funcom and look forward to collaborating with Funcom to deliver more exciting and enjoyable game experiences to fans worldwide," Polygon quoted Steven Ma, senior vice president of Tencent.

Reports also claims that Funcom is quite happy about the offer and have urged shareholders to sell their stakes.

Tencent recently announced its new partnership with gaming smartphone manufacturer Black Shark.

The new deal with Black Shark will focus on cooperation in the field of gaming phones with the end goal of giving users an improved mobile gaming experience.

Earlier smartphone makers like Asus partnered with Tencent Games to bring their ROG Phone II and also the Tencent customized Elite version in China.

Xiaomi's sub-brand Black Shark launched Black Shark 2 Pro smartphone in July last year and the upcoming Black Shark 3 is expected to be launched in the next few months.