Morris opted to sell the site to the leading dating website (a subsidiary of IAC) for $150 million in 2003. Prior to founding King, Riccardo Zacconi and Toby Rowland, the latter of whom is the only son of British businessman Tiny Rowland, had worked together on, a dating website created by Melvyn Morris which, by 2003, was the second-largest such site in the world.
Gerhard Florin took over Melvyn Morris's role as chairman in November 2014. King is led by Riccardo Zacconi, who has served in the role of chief executive officer since co-founding the company in 2003. King was acquired by Activision Blizzard in February 2016 for US$5.9 billion, and operates as its own entity within that company. Julian's, Malta, King gained prominence after releasing the cross-platform title Candy Crush Saga in 2012, considered one of the most financially successful games utilising the freemium model.
Headquartered in Stockholm and London, and incorporated as Limited in St. King, also known as King Digital Entertainment, is a Swedish video game developer and publisher that specialises in social games.
