Social gaming giant King Digital Entertainment has seen the departure of its chief legal officer and company secretary Robert Miller for virtual reality start-up Improbable.
Miller (pictured) joined the mobile games developer, best known for its Candy Crush Saga game, in 2012, when the company grew from three European offices to 10 and expanded from 150 employees to more than 2,000.
Miller joins Improbable as its first in-house lawyer. The London tech start-up, which creates virtual reality simulations that can be used to model real situations in medicine, economics or city planning, received $20m venture capital funding in 2015.
During his time at the London tech company, King launched a $7.2bn initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014. The IPO was advised by US tech specialists Fenwick & West for King, with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati advising the underwriters.
Miller trained at Nabarro Nathanson, later moving to Field Fisher before moving in-house to join BT as a corporate counsel in 1996. He was later a legal director at eBay from 2001 to 2006 and vice president and general counsel of Skype between 2006 and 2010, before moving to online marketplace LivingSocial.
In late 2015, King was acquired by tech giant Activision Blizzard for $5.9bn. Activision was advised by Debevoise & Plimpton, Mason Hayes & Curran and Allen & Overy, while Miller once again turned to Fenwick & West and William Fry.
Last year, London start-up Citymapper appointed Alice Hou as its first general counsel, while food courier company Deliveroo appointed Baker & McKenzie trained Sam Harper as its legal chief.
matthew.field@legalease.co.uk
