Aristocrat Leisure (ALL) shares hit a nine-year high after the gaming company not only signed a cross-licensing agreement with bitter rival, International Game Technology, but also signed a deal that ends 15-years of on and off legal skirmishing between the two companies over their patents and technologies.
Aristocrat shares rose as high as $16.63 and ended up 1.5% at $16.28.
In a statement to the ASX yesterday, Aristocrat announced that it has reached a comprehensive cross-licensing agreement with International Game Technology PLC covering intellectual property involving game features and system patents. Terms of the agreement have not been announced. Both companies agreed to settle all outstanding litigation.
“Turning ideas into value-adding innovation is core to Aristocrat’s mission to ‘create the world’s greatest gaming experience every day’. Our agreement with IGT will contribute towards this, and we are pleased to have finalised these arrangements,” said Aristocrat CFO and Company Secretary, Toni Korsanos in the statement.
“IGT’s R&D investment and patent portfolio are the largest in the gaming industry. We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Aristocrat as we build upon our leadership in gaming innovation” said IGT Chief Executive Officer North America Gaming & Interactive (DoubleDown Casino), Renato Ascoli.
“This agreement demonstrates both companies’ shared commitment to investing in and preserving the value of intellectual property.” Aristocrat has enjoyed growing market support in recent years and in May the company forecast a 66% jump in underlying profit to $183.2 million.
Aristocrat makes electronic gaming equipment, hardware and systems sales. In 2014, the company bought Video Gaming Technologies for $1.3 billion which doubled the digital revenue and profit year on year.
Google Aristocrat and IGT and there is a trail of court cases, threatened, settled and appealed stretching back to 2001.
The shares jumped yesterday on the hope that the millions of dollars spent on those cases will now fall to the bottom line.
