EA Games to Use Qualcomm Platform

June 3rd, 2005 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Companies & M&A | No Comments »

Electronic Arts Inc., the largest maker of video games in the U.S., will license Qualcomm Inc.’s operating system to grab a bigger slice of the $1.3-billion market for games played on mobile phones.

The growing popularity of wireless handsets as a game platform is luring investment from companies such as Walt Disney Co., Yahoo Inc. and THQ Inc. and may crimp sales for competitors such as Nintendo Co., which says it has no plans to put games on phones. More …

EA and Qualcomm aim to bring games to cellular level

June 2nd, 2005 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Companies & M&A | No Comments »

Electronic Arts, the largest U.S. video game maker, was scheduled to announce on Wednesday an agreement with Qualcomm aimed at grabbing a bigger slice of the $1.3 billion market for games played on mobile phones.

The partnership will mesh games made by Electronic Arts with software developed by Qualcomm, a leading maker of chips that power cellphones, John Batter, the vice president for Electronic Arts’ mobile-games unit, said on Wednesday.

"It’s time for us to get involved," Batter said. "We saw the market developing in terms of consumer downloads." More …

Profile: Ojom’s Killer Mobile Games

May 27th, 2005 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Companies & M&A | No Comments »

Ojom is a small company with a big parent company. A subsidiary of Verisign (yeah, that Verisign), Ojom has been making innovative games for the European market for years now. And as any US-based mobile geek can tell you, we in the States have been missing out on lots and lots of cool stuff. Pretty much everywhere else in the world has better cell phones, better services, more features, faster Internet access, and more. Within the US we’ve been tied to our SUV-like desktops or Miata-like laptops, and, quite frankly, we’d rather put on our iPod earbuds and isolate ourselves from everyone else rather than flash mobbing up to the platz for a group espresso. So perhaps a bit of background is warranted. More …

RealNetworks Enters Mobile Games Market: Acquires European-based Mr.Goodliving Ltd

May 11th, 2005 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Companies & M&A | No Comments »

Real is acquiring Mr.Goodliving Ltd for approximately $15 million in cash. The transaction formally closed on Friday May 6, 2005. Real expects the acquisition to generate incremental revenue of approximately $3 million for the remainder of 2005 and approximately $8 million in 2006. More …

JAMDAT’s Upwardly Mobile

May 10th, 2005 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Companies & M&A | No Comments »

Last Friday, the stock performance of JAMDAT (Nasdaq: JMDT) looked more like an IPO, not a response to an earnings report. The stock surged roughly 50% to about $26.00.

Investors certainly had reason to be happy. In the first quarter, revenues skyrocketed 115% to $15.1 million compared with the same period last year. The sequential increase was 31%. And this is not growth at the expense of income, since the company posted net income of $2.7 million, which was up from $700,000 in the same period a year ago. More …

Shares of Jamdat rise 39% on positive news

May 9th, 2005 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Companies & M&A | No Comments »

Shares of Jamdat rose $6.82, or 39 percent, to close at $24.33 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The jump followed a 4.5 percent increase Thursday that was preceded by a 10 percent sell-off in the company’s stock between April 21 and Wednesday. More …

Yahoo in push on mobile games

March 4th, 2005 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Companies & M&A | No Comments »

Yahoo yesterday signalled its intent to boost its revenues from mobile phones, announcing the creation of a games studio and the acquisition of a developer of platforms for wireless gaming. Yahoo did not disclose terms of the deal to buy New-Jersey based Stadeon, but John Cahill, its founder and chief executive, will move to Yahoo’s Silicon Valley headquarters to lead its mobile games business. More … More …(2)

PLAY IT OUTLINES PLANS FOR MOBILE GAMES DIVISION

March 4th, 2005 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Companies & M&A | No Comments »

Games publishing pioneer Play It today announced the launch of a new mobile phone games label. The value publisher which sells a range of great games for Playstation and Playstation 2 starting at just £6.99, has confirmed 10 titles will be initially shipped by Play It Mobile. More …

IndiaGames: Ready to take on gaming giants

March 2nd, 2005 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Companies & M&A | No Comments »

Vishal Gondal says he was “surprised by the interest but sensed the fit was right” between his games company, Indiagames, and Tom Online, the Chinese internet company. The deal was also without precedent: it was the first time an Indian technology company had been bought by a Chinese counterpart.

Gondal, a 28-year-old entrepreneur who has been dabbling in start-ups since his school days, is unfazed by the significance of Tom Online’s $18 million purchase of an 81 per cent share in Indiagames, India’s biggest publisher of games for mobile phones. More …

JAMDAT Mobile Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2004 Results

February 24th, 2005 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Companies & M&A | No Comments »

— Fourth quarter 2004 revenues of $11.6 million marked JAMDAT’s twelfth consecutive quarter of double-digit sequential revenue growth (up 22% over third quarter 2004 and a 122% increase over fourth quarter 2003). Fiscal year 2004 revenues of $36.6 million represented JAMDAT’s third consecutive year of triple digit revenue growth with a 171% increase over 2003.

— Fourth quarter 2004 GAAP net income of $0.6 million, or $0.03 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $1.8 million in the prior year period. Fiscal year 2004 GAAP net income of $1.8 million, compared to a net loss of $7.1 million in 2003.

— Fourth quarter 2004 adjusted net income of $1.2 million, or $0.06 per diluted share, compared to an adjusted net loss of $1.2 million in the prior year period. 2004 adjusted net income of $5.1 million compared to an adjusted net loss of $2.8 million in 2003. More …