(Bloomberg) -- Epic Games Inc. is in advanced talks to raise as much as $1.7 billion, which would double the fundraising haul over the last year for the maker of the popular shooting game Fortnite.
The terms value the business at about $28 billion, people familiar with the discussions said.
The company has already secured commitments of more than $1 billion, and the final amount isn't set, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. The capital comes primarily from mutual funds and other big institutional investors, many of which are existing backers, the people said.
A representative for Epic declined to comment. Some details of the deal were reported earlier by Sky News.
Tim Sweeney founded Epic in the early 1990s. The company developed and published several hit games, as well as Unreal Engine, a set of tools used by many developers to build their games. Nearly a decade ago, Sweeney sold a 40% stake in Epic to China's Tencent Holdings Ltd.
The fundraising machine went into overdrive during the last few years, driven by the ascent of Fortnite. Epic said last August that it had raised $1.78 billion at a valuation of $17.3 billion. It acquired some buzzy startups, including the maker of Fall Guys, a party game that has seen a surge in players during the coronavirus pandemic.
Among the backers committed to the latest round are funds managed by Fidelity Investments, Franklin Templeton and T. Rowe Price Group Inc., the people familiar with the talks said.
Some of the money will likely go to lawyers. Epic is engaged in courtroom battles with Apple Inc. and Google over allegations that they engage in anticompetitive behavior by demanding a cut of transactions through their app stores.
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