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  • Viacom-Owned Paramount Buys Game Developer ScreenLife

    Paramount Pictures, the Viacom-owned movie studio, has made its first gaming related acquisition: it has bought Seattle-based game developer ScreenLife , the creator of the popular DVD game "Scene It?". Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but last week SeattlePI first broke the story and mentioned that the deal is "for less than $100 million". Screenlife will continue to operate as a standalone company, but will report into Paramount Digital Entertainment. Scene was launched in 2002 as a series of video-based trivia games..it has since sold about 15 million titles on the DVD, mobile, VOD and video game platforms. The company has over 25 DVD game titles on the market. Screenlife raised $7 million in angel financing in 2003, and a total of about $10 million. It has also expanded into mobile , with a deal with Namco Games… For Paramount, this is part of the trend as gaming is becoming a big part of movie studios including Warner Bros and Disney ( NYSE: DIS ). In March, Paramount announced the expansion of its interactive unit to include games, and appointed two executives in charge of the unit. In February, the studio formed Paramount Mobile Entertainment, to develop the studio's mobile opportunities and alternative distribution models. It just announced developing a series of comics based on films from its catalog. Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
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  • Earnings: Buongiorno Reports Strong Results For First-Half 2008; Sees Weakness Coming

    Italian mobile content company Buongiorno released financial results for the first half of the year today, reporting that both revenues and operating profits are up in the six-month period, but cautioned that the economic climate may hurt results in the short term. The company did not break down results for the second quarter. Andrea Casalini, Buongiorno's (BIT: BNG) CEO: "We believe that the mobile entertainment market will continue to offer significant long-term opportunities, despite the less buoyant short term outlook, resulting from our period of adjustment and macroeconomic conditions. Release. During the year, Buongiorno increased its presence in new markets, such as South Africa, Australia and Argentina. In the first half, its biggest markets in terms of revenues were Iberia, the UK, Italy and the Mediterranean, France, the U.S., Latin America and Germany and Austria. In the year's first-half, the company reported revenues of $232 million (EUR 158 million), an increase of 84 percent compared to the prior year. The company reported that earnings before some expenses, or EBITDA, was $24 million (EUR 16.3 million), an increase of 96 percent compared to the year earlier. Operating profit was also up 74 percent, and the company implemented some cost savings goals that resulted in a savings in personnel costs. The company today confirmed the revised 2008 forecast it tweaked back in July. Buongiorno expects revenues for 2008 to be as much as $491 million (EUR 335 million) and EBITDA of up to $58.7 million (EUR 40 million). Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
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  • Kleiner Perkins' iFund Invests In Five Startups; All To Go Public In Seven To Eight Years

    The $100 million iFund investment pool, created by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, has invested in five iPhone start-ups, NYT reports in a profile piece on Matt Murphy who heads up the endeavor. Pelago, the parent of mobile location-based service Whrrl, received an investment from KPCB before the iFund was created, and then was transferred over. The next three were: iControl, a company that enables users to monitor homes while away, and Gogii and Ngmoco, two mobile game companies. A fifth unnamed investment is expected to be announced soon. Whrrl has already launched its application on the iPhone, with Gogii, Ngmoco and the unnamed company expected to launch this fall. iControl will take longer, and aims for early next year. Murphy said KPCB has already received 2,500 business plans for potential iPhone application start-ups. While iFund investments can range from $100,000 to $15 million, KPCB has invested $5 million to $8 million in each of its first five. Murphy added that the goal is for the companies to go public in seven to eight years. Murphy also talked about how frustrating the mobile space has been until only recently. Murphy: "I was frustrated along with everyone else about how slowly everything was moving...Until the iPhone came out and you got to use one, it was hard to imagine how impactful it could be." Related iPhone Game Start-Up Ngmoco Gets Funding from Kleiner Perkins Updated: More Details On The $100 Million Kleiner Perkins iFund Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
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  • Reliance (Still) Scouting For Mobile Content Acquisitions In U.S.; How About Yahoo?

    Reliance ADA , the scary-big Indian telecom/media/energy giant which is already making strides in Hollywood through its Dreamworks deal, has been looking for mobile content deals in U.S. for some time now, and WSJ helps with the scouting with a longish story on its ambitions. It is looking at mobile game publishers and other kinds of mobile entertainment firms, with the intent to "exploit its expertise in telecom and get exposure to a segment of the cellphone industry that promises high growth, the story says. NO specific deals have been lined up yet, though one could expect companies like Glu Mobile ( NSDQ: GLUU ), Digital Chocolate (has been on the block for a long time now), and Hands-On Mobile (which has been disposing of international units to focus on U.S.) as targets. The deals are being explored Jump Games , Reliance's mobile gaming unit. Besides these middlemen-type deals, the company is also looking to license content directly from major brands, which it can then distribute through its huge base in India, the reasoning goes. Will its experience be any better than the doomed Japanese and Korean mobile content forays into U.S. market starting five years ago? Index, For-Side and Cybird tried, and bought a slew of companies, only to end up selling them off or closing them a few years later. Reasons then were lack of common language and work culture, complexities of working with the walled-garden operators then, and the lack of consumer adoption with slower networks. Now, some of those issues have gone away.... Here's a wilder thought, though: What about looking at bigger online deals in U.S.? Reliance has the money and the capability to raise a lot more...how about making a run at Yahoo? Better than Disney buying Yahoo ( NSDQ: YHOO ). Wait, you haven't heard about Dubai Government looking to buy Google? Settle down, just speculatin'.. Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number...
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  • Hands-On Mobile Sheds European Business; Merges With Connect 2 Media As Minority Shareholder

    MocoNews has learned that mobile games developer Hands-On Mobile is shedding its European game business four years after acquiring the company. This division, which also covers the Middle East and Africa, will be transferred to an expanded Connect 2 Media , a cross-platform game developer. The business goes right back into the hands of Eric Hobson, CEO of Connect 2 Media, who originally sold the earlier incarnation of the division, Blue Beck Media, to Hands-On four years ago. He left Hands-On earlier this year to join Connect 2 Media. Hands-On will retain a minority stake in the operation, which at the same time is receiving a $6.7 million investment from Acuity. Hands-On injected some cash into the deal, as well, but it was minimal since the deal was mostly pegged around the transfer of its EMEA assets. This follows Hands-On's sale of its Korean division to EA less than two months ago for $29 million in cash. Niccolo de Masi , president of Hands-On, explained the move in an interview today: "We've been looking at how we can bulk up our distributing ability in EMEA for a while now." The company had to buy or build in order to achieve that and thinks it's getting both with this deal. By "rolling ourselves into one vehicle," the company's opportunity will grow substantially by getting more boots on the ground and combining each of the parties' areas of expertise across multiple platforms. "We've effectively taken a smaller stake in a much larger entity… We don't consider ourselves to be selling anything to be honest." Hands-On wouldn't disclose how much of a share it gets in the bigger company, but said it retains all the rights that come with being a minority shareholder. Acuity and Connect 2 Media will also be minority shareholders in the newly merged company, leaving no party with a majority share . Hands-On plans to increase its equity in the company through continued investment, De Masi said, adding that...
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  • Useful Networks Acquires KnowledgeWhere For Location-Based Games And Ads

    Useful Networks , the Liberty Media-owned provider of location-based services, has acquired Calgary-based KnowledgeWhere , a developer of location-based games and advertising. Terms of the acquisition were not announced. In the announcement Useful Networks didn't offer any specifics on post-acquisition plans, except that the KnowledgeWhere services made sense as part of the company's overall portfolio of location-based products. KnowledgeWhere has taken one unspecified funding round from BDC Venture Capital. Release . Related Useful Networks Launching SNIFF: Snoop or Friend Finder? Liberty Media Buys Levin's Useful Networks Our mobile application for Blackberry and other Smartphones brings you the latest headlines when you're on the go. Go here to download .
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  • Earnings: Glu Mobile Sees Record Revenue In Q2; Losses Increase From Charges

    Glu Mobile ( NSDQ: GLUU ) reported its second-quarter earnings today, saying that it hit a record-high for revenue of $23.7 million, a 45 percent increase from the year-ago period when it recorded $16.4 million in revenue. However, its net loss widened due to charges mostly associated with its acquisitions of MIG and Superscape. In Q2, it lost $6.6 million, or 23 cents a share, compared to the year-ago period when it lost $898,000, or 3 cents a share. The loss of 23 cents a share was close to the 22 cent loss analysts were expecting . Excluding some items, it reported non-GAAP income of $278,000, or 1 cent a share, a decrease over last year's non-GAAP net income of $730,000 or 2 cents a share, excluded amortization of intangible assets and stock-based compensation charges. Other highlights: -- Results were driven by sales in parts of Europe, and a better than expected performance in China, but the U.S. market was soft. The second-half will have a strong line-up with new partnerships with Activision ( NSDQ: ATVI ), Sony ( NYSE: SNE ) Pictures Television International, Sega and FremantleMedia Enterprises. -- Glu's top ten titles represented about 32 percent of revenue in Q2, compared to about 43 percent of revenue in Q1. The average revenue per top ten title was $752,000, down 14 percent from the the same period last year. New titles released in the second quarter of 2008 included: Mystery Case Files: Agent X , Speed Racer , Wedding Dash , Super Slam Ping Pong and Get Cookin' . -- Glu also announced that Eric Ludwig, SVP of finance and interim CFO, has been appointed chief financial officer. -- Q3 expectations: Revenue is expected to be between $24 million and $24.7 million; net loss is expected to be between $5.9 million and $6.3 million, or 20 to 21 cents a share. Release Our mobile application for Blackberry and other Smartphones brings you the latest headlines when you're on the go. Go here to download .
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  • Glu Call: Economic Weakness In North America; Adjusts Forecast

    Although revenues hit an all-time high, Glu's ( NSDQ: GLUU ) CEO Greg Ballard explained today on the company's Q2 conference call that it encountered challenges during the period because of the general weakness of the U.S. economy. He said that during the period, even though the company had a light release schedule, they were more impacted by a general slowdown across all of its titles and all U.S. carriers. Highlights from the call: -- Sales fell short even with its largest customer Verizon Wireless ( NYSE: VZ ), which may have been impacted by the economy, but also because Verizon started to charge customers a data surcharge who downloaded a game without a data plan. Ballard: "I don't know how it's affected the business, but it's clear that it will have some impact." -- The company is lowering its full-year forecast. Revenues of up to $97 million are expected for 2008, down from the previous forecast of up to $100 million. GAAP net loss is expected to be between $21.8 million and $23 million, or 74 and 78 cents a share. That compares with previous forecasts of a GAAP net loss of $18.1 million to $19.2 million, or 61 to 65 cents a share. -- The company opened offices in both Chile and Mexico because of strong growth in Latin America. -- Speed Racer mobile game: Ballard said the mobile game sold better "than the movie sales might suggest, but it didn't do as well as our expectations." -- Q3 will be Glu's most active publishing period ever, and they see growth coming, strengthened by the diversification of regions and both original IP and brands. -- On the iPhone's App store launch: Space Monkey became available for the iPhone on the same day of the App store launch. Ballard said they were deliberate in launching only one game to test out the various approaches to the platform spanning both price point and genres of games that are popular. "It's taken five years to be successful to be in the traditional carrier...
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  • iPhone Game Start-Up Ngmoco Gets Funding from Kleiner Perkins

    San Francisco-based ngmoco , which is short for "Next-Generation Mobile Company" (we are partial to the name because it also has "moco" in it), has received its first round of funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) with participation from Maples Investments. The amount was not disclosed. Bing Gordon, KPCB partner and former chief creative officer of Electronic Arts ( NSDQ: ERTS ), will join the ngmoco board. The founder of the startup is also an ex-EA: Neil Young is the founder and CEO, and was one of the rock star game development executives who was responsible for top-selling games, such as The Lord of the Rings titles to The Sims 2 . ngmoco is developing games for the iPhone platform, though no specific games gave been released yet. In March 2008, KPCB launched the iFund, a $100 million vehicle for investing in iPhone-related start-ups. This investment is presumably out of that fund. More details in release . Related EA Exec Neil Young Leaves For iPhone Game Start-Up Ngmoco Updated: More Details On The $100 Million Kleiner Perkins iFund Our mobile application for Blackberry and other Smartphones brings you the latest headlines when you're on the go. Go here to download .
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  • Earnings: THQ Wireless Q2 Revenues Grow 17.7 Percent

    THQ ( NSDQ: THQI ) Wireless saw its second quarter revenues grow 17.7 percent year-on-year to $5.147 million. However, it represented 3.7 percent of total THQ revenues, compared to 4.2 percent a year ago. For coverage of THQ's earnings check paidContent.org . Related Earnings: THQ Wireless Falls 27 Percent Year-On-Year In '08 Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
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  • Earnings: EA Mobile Up 33 Percent Year-On-Year

    Electronic Arts ( NSDQ: ERTS ) has released its second quarter earnings ( PaidContent has details)—of interest to the mobile world is that EA Mobile brought in revenues of $44 million, an increase of 33 percent year-on-year. It's also an increase of 4.8 percent sequentially. It has been steadily increasing its revenue by $2-3 million each quarter, giving a boost to the whole mobility section. PSP games brought in 57 million, a 171 percent increase year-on-year (although it fell by 17 percent sequentially) and Nintendo DS brought in $21 million, a fall of 16 percent year-on-year and a fall of 41 percent sequentially. Mobile makes up 36 percent of EA's mobility division this quarter, and 5.5 percent of EA's total revenue. Matt adds : From the call: EA Mobile has launched three games for the iPhone already – Tetris, Scrabble and Soduku – and plans to launch additional games for the platform by the end of the current quarter. Overall, the mobile games division plans to launch eight titles for wireless platforms during the quarter. Otherwise, little was said about mobile. The bulk of the call was pegged around the company's new focus on Nintendo's Wii platform and the game publisher's sports division. Related Earnings: EA's Mobile Revenues Up Slightly Earnings: EA's Mobile Revenues Flat For Q2; THQ's Mobile Revs Decrease Earnings: Electronic Arts Q1 Revenues Fall 4.4 Percent, Mobile Revenues Increase 140 Percent Our mobile application for Blackberry and other Smartphones brings you the latest headlines when you're on the go. Go here to download .
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  • Indiagames To Purchase 51 Percent Of US Company

    Indiagames, the mobile and online gaming company in India, plans to buy a 51 percent stake in a US mobile games firm, and will raise the funds through a new share issue. Its Indian parent, UTV Software Communications, plans to invest $75 million in its gaming business, including taking a stake in a US startup which plans to set up a publishing platform for the online creation of content reports The Economic Times . Equity Bulls describes the Indiagames purchase as a "mobile content aggregator". If anyone knows the company it is acquiring, send us an anonymous tip thorough the tip box in the left hand column (RSS readers will have to click through). Related Indiagames Monetizes Mobile Community By Tying Up With Operator Indiagames Plans To Raise $25 Million; But Is Tom Online Exiting? Indiagames Nabs EA Game Distribution In India Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
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