South Korean online game publisher Neowiz said Wednesday it has acquired a 60 percent stake in a local mobile game company Sticky Hands.

“The acquisition will give Neowiz the business management rights over Sticky Hands and allow the company to boost its competitiveness in the global casual game market,” a Neowiz official said.

Launched in 2016, Sticky Hands specializes in solitaire, a tabletop game which one can play by oneself, usually with cards. Its solitaire game series recorded 1.5 million downloads, and 70 percent of the company’s revenue is generated overseas. In 2018, one of Sticky Hands’ solitaire games was selected as the “innovative game of the year” by Google Play in 2018.

As of 2019, Neowiz generated 40 percent of its revenue from web board games. Last year, the company’s revenue and operating profit jumped 14 percent and 85 percent to 289.6 billion won ($320.4 million) and 60.3 billion won, respectively.

Neowiz declined to disclose the exact size of the deal.

By Kim Byung-wook (kbw@heraldcorp.com)