Glu buys iFone as M&A fever continues

Emerging mobile game giant, Glu, yesterday announced that it had acquired UK publisher, iFone. It's a double win for Glu which will benefit both from iFone's strong European sales and marketing set-up and its range of licenses including Monopoly, Lemmings, loads of old Atari stuff and a range of Sega properties including Sonic the Hedgehog.

This is the latest in a slew of mergers and acquisitions that have redefined the mobile games industry over the last two years. In December 2004, Glu, previously known as Sorrent, bought UK developer Macrospace to gain a foothold in the European market. At around the same time, US technology company, InfoSpace, barged its way into the global games industry with purchases of Iomo and Elkware. More recently, EA paid out for Jamdat, RealNetworks moved in on Finnish developer Mr Goodliving and THQ bought Juice, partly for the developer's mobile game output.

In many ways this reflects the torrent of m&a activity that took place throughout the traditional games industry during the mid-nineties. At that time, smaller studios and publishers were finding themselves unable to compete in the more expensive PlayStation era. Meanwhile, larger companies were on the prowl, looking to improve their global reach by quickly acquiring local talent in key territories. The resulting frenzy of buy-outs and takeovers spelled the end for UK names like Gremlin Interactive, Domark and Psygnosis.