Half the mobile game market “is still up for grabs,” Glu Mobile CEO Greg Ballard told a Goldman Sachs symposium in Las Vegas Thursday. Glu will be the only mobile game company with a “substantial presence in China,” he said. He predicted that market will grow significantly over the next few years. The North America mobile game market is a “three- horse race,” among Electronic Arts, Glu and Gameloft, he said. But smaller mobile game companies are fighting for the remaining 50 percent of the market, and they will be “giving up market share over the next couple of years,” Ballard predicted. Glu disclosed late last year it acquired China mobile game company MIG and announced a tender offer in January to buy Superscape, which Glu said ranked among the top five mobile game publishers in the U.S. during Q4 2007, citing Nielsen Mobile data. If the Superscape transaction is consummated, adding of its market share to Glu’s existing share “would solidify” Glu’s No. 2 position in the U.S. among mobile game companies and bring it closer to No. 1 player Electronic Arts, Ballard said early this month. Glu is “pleased with the progress” of the tender offer so far, he said Thursday. It’s “probably going to pause for a little while” on acquiring more companies as it takes time to “digest” the MIG and Superscape deals, Ballard said.
Half the mobile game market “is still up for grabs,” Glu Mobile CEO Greg Ballard told a Goldman Sachs symposium in Las Vegas Thursday. Glu will be the only major, Western mobile game company with a “substantial presence in China,” he said. He predicted that market will grow significantly over the next few years. The North America mobile game market is a “three-horse race,” among Electronic Arts, Glu and Gameloft, he said. But smaller mobile game companies are fighting for the remaining 50 percent of the market, and they will be “giving up market share over the next couple of years,” Ballard predicted. Glu disclosed late last year it acquired China mobile game company MIG and announced a tender offer in January to buy Superscape, which Glu said ranked among the top five mobile game publishers in the U.S. during Q4 2007, citing Nielsen Mobile data. If the Superscape transaction is consummated, adding of its market share to Glu’s existing share “would solidify” Glu’s No. 2 position in the U.S. among mobile game companies and bring it closer to No. 1 player Electronic Arts, Ballard said early this month. Glu is “pleased with the progress” of the tender offer so far, he said Thursday. It’s “probably going to pause for a little while” on acquiring more companies as it takes time to “digest” the MIG and Superscape deals, Ballard said. It likely will take “several months” to integrate Superscape into Glu’s operations, he noted. But he said Glu’s “eyes are still open” for new opportunities on the acquisition front. Ballard also predicted EA and other major publishers in the midst of consolidation could end up lessening their focus on mobile games to better focus on their core console games, which will “allow us even further opportunity to consolidate our business,” he said. Glu announced plans to launch 12 titles in the first half of 2008: Shadowalker, Space Monkey, Age of Empires III Mobile, Mystery Case Files: Agent X, Solitaire Pop, Speed Racer, Wedding Dash, Frantic Factory, Get Cookin’, CrossPix by glu, Super Slam Ping Pong! and The Dark Knight, based on the upcoming Warner Bros. Batman film of that name. Nine of those games are original Glu properties, Ballard boasted, before predicting the company’s second half lineup “will be even stronger.”
The economy is slowing, but telecom still will “see a healthy uptick at home and abroad” the next three years, said Telecommunications Industry Association president Grant Seiffert as TIA released its 2008 Telecommunications Market Review & Forecast. TIA expects the global telecom market to grow 9.2 percent yearly, hitting $4.9 trillion in 2011, said Seiffert. Of that, the U.S. will contribute $1.3 trillion, with revenue growing 7.2 percent annually between now and then, he said.
After years of tire-kicking, most large U.S. and Canadian cable operators finally are rolling out, or preparing to roll out, switched digital video (SDV) technology to save digital spectrum for more profitable uses (CD Nov 26 p5). The biggest North American cable companies - - Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter, Cox and Cablevision Systems -- are deploying or preparing to deploy SDV, trying to bolster their competitive positions against DirecTV, Verizon and other multichannel video rivals.
After years of tire-kicking, most large U.S. and Canadian cable operators finally are rolling out, or preparing to roll out, switched digital video technology to save digital spectrum for more profitable uses. The biggest North American cable companies -- Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter, Cox and Cablevision Systems -- are deploying or preparing to deploy switched digital video, trying to bolster their competitive positions against DirecTV, Verizon and other multichannel video rivals.
In a time of cutthroat e-commerce competition, eBay is pulling out the stops to keep users happy, even at the risk of upsetting sellers short-term, Marketplace President John Donahoe said Tuesday at the UBS investor conference. The company’s fixed-price transactions now account for 41 percent of all sales, and eBay has been testing a new pricing formula for fixed-price sellers the past three months, he said. Donahoe also defended eBay’s purchase of Skype, which came under fire when the company took a $1.4 billion writeoff for it.
HD DVD’s most ambitious use yet of its Web-enabled interactivity comes Dec. 11, when Warner Home Video’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix debuts on HD DVD Combo Disc, as well as on DVD and Blu-ray. The HD DVD version’s “Live Community Screening” function lets viewers watch the movie together from different locations, and comment simultaneously through the remote controls of their Ethernet- connected players. One disc-owner acts as host, inviting up to three others to join the screening. The host operates all disc functions on all the connected machines, such as Play and Pause, in response to input from guests via text-messages through players’ remote controls, or even e-mail or cellphones, Warner said. The community screening feature isn’t available on Blu-ray versions of the Potter movie, because Ethernet connections aren’t mandated for all Blu-ray players as they have been for HD DVD since its launch. Blu- ray and HD DVD versions of the Potter disc have a $35.99 MSRP. Conventional DVD versions of the Potter movie also feature an innovation. The single-disc version offers the option of downloading a free copy of the movie to PC. With the two-disc version, a compressed copy of the movie is included for free ripping to a PC -- in case a buyer lacks a broadband connection, or wants to avoid download time. Both free-copying methods are part of Warner’s effort to offer consumers new ways to port its content to other devices without having to resort to unauthorized methods like P2P file-sharing. The studio can gauge consumer interest in the copying options and HD DVD community screening because disc buyers must register online to activate them.
HD DVD’s most ambitious use of its Web-enabled interactivity comes Dec. 11, when Warner Home Video’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix debuts on DVD, Blu-ray and HD DVD Combo Disc. The HD DVD version’s “Live Community Screening” function lets disc owners watch the movie together from different locations, and comment simultaneously through the remote controls of their Ethernet-connected players. One disc-owner acts as host, inviting up to three others to join the screening. The host operates all disc functions on all the connected machines, such as Play and Pause, in response to input from guests via text-messages through players’ remote controls, or even e-mail or cellphones, Warner said. The community screening feature isn’t available on Blu-ray versions of the Potter movie, because Ethernet connections aren’t mandated for all Blu-ray players as they have been for HD DVD since its launch. Blu-ray and HD DVD versions of the Potter disc have a $35.99 MSRP. Conventional DVD versions of the Potter movie also feature an innovation. The single-disc version offers the option of downloading a free copy of the movie to PC. With the two-disc version, a compressed copy of the movie is included for free ripping to a PC -- in case a buyer lacks a broadband connection, or wants to avoid download time. Both free-copying methods are part of Warner’s effort to offer consumers new ways to port its content to other devices without having to resort to unauthorized methods like P2P file-sharing. The studio can gauge consumer interest in the copying options and HD DVD community screening because disc buyers must register online to activate them.
Renegotiation of the deal to buy Tribune looks increasingly prudent, Gimme Credit analyst Dave Novosel wrote. Investor Samuel Zell agreed to buy Tribune in an $8.2 billion deal that will nominally put the company in the hands of its employees through an employee stock ownership plan. “The LBO by Sam Zell is still on at this point, but we think the deal may be restructured,” Novosel said. “Poor operating performance and an unsettled credit market will give investors pause on a new bond offering.” FCC Chairman Kevin Martin circulated Wednesday a proposal that would grant Tribune the newspaper-broadcast cross ownership waivers it needs to complete financing for the deal (CD Nov 29 p3). That proposal would “enable Tribune’s going private transaction to close by the end of the year,” CEO Dennis FitzSimons said late Wednesday. If the transaction fails to move forward in time, the company could face expensive tax effects, according to industry sources and news reports.
AOL introduced a service that integrates banner ads into streaming video. Rather than overlaying an ad and blocking part of a video, AOL’s video ticker ad appears at the bottom of the video player 10 seconds into a stream. When clicked by a user, the ad expands as the video pauses. If the user doesn’t click on the ad, it dissolves after 15 seconds. The ads will run across the AOL Network of premium video content in the newest version of the AOL Video media player platform.