February 2nd, 2007 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Companies & M&A | 1 Comment »
We are back on the subject that surprised a lot of the industry as we have an exclusive Q&A with Michael Steuer. Within Twistbox, Michael is the Vice President of Games and is absolutely the one that can answer the hottest questions we received since we posted the news.
[Arjan] At this moment, a lot of developers are looking to be acquired. Why did Twistbox choose InfoSpace‘s Atlas Studio?
[Michael] Twistbox’s strategy in the mobile games space has always evolved around providing added value above and beyond a very compelling title line up. Examples of such added values include our Wrapper technology, which enables carriers to integrate in game advertising, recommend to a friend and try before you buy functionality into any game, the last mile QA certification we provide to a number of carriers, our role as Vodafone Group’s global preferred aggregator and the integrated marketing and advertising campaigns we enable around mobile games for carriers around the world. In InfoSpace’s Atlas Studio we recognized a technology and product strategy that significantly compliments ours and will allow us to offer further compelling added value to carriers, game publishers and advertisers alike. We look forward to continuing and further expanding on the skills based multiplayer tournament for prizes offering which the Studio has so successfully pioneered over the last couple years.
[Arjan] With the studio, you also acquired a part of the back catalogue and the mobile games which where in development at that time. Can you tell us more about the mobile gaming licenses which where included with the acquisition?
[Michael] We acquired a very strong back catalogue that has been performing phenomenally over the last couple years. Twistbox will maintain that catalogue and expand handset coverage by leveraging our internally developed RapidPort platform, which enables efficient porting across all Java, Brew, DoJa and Symbian handsets. In addition we’ve acquired a strong pipeline of unreleased products that were in development, including SuperSlyder for Prizes, Take Yer Meds for Prizes and Card Player Poker for Prizes. Here too, we’re leveraging our RapidPort solution to complete development and porting and will be making these titles available to carriers around the world shortly. Each of these titles are of very high quality and we fully expect to continue our recent streak of stellar reviews and industry awards our internally developed titles have been granted, including the “Best Made For Mobile” Game nomination at the Global Mobile Awards at 3GSM and our “Best Mobile Game” award at the German Developer Awards for the second year in a row.
[Arjan] Did Twistbox also take over distribution deals that InfoSpace held with operators for the products from Atlas?
[Michael] Twistbox is continuing the distribution of these products with the operators that previously carried them and rapidly expanding the distribution footprint. We currently have over 100 direct carrier distribution agreements globally and are scheduling launches for “For Prizes” titles with carriers in North, Central, South America and Europe.
[Arjan] Finally, how much interest is there within Twistbox to do more acquisitions? Can we expect more expansion this way along 2007?
[Michael] Our industry is an exciting space that’s constantly evolving. Twistbox is first and foremost interested in healthy, well considered growth and continues to evaluate opportunities on a case by case basis.
9 months since the aqcuisition, what have they done? i’ve heard mixed about this steuar bloke, from internals. rumor on the ground is that atlas chaps are looking for better…which should not be hard for them.