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Glu Mobile

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Glu Mobile, Inc.
Company typePublic
Nasdaq: GLUU
IndustryMobile games
Computer and video games
Founded2001; 23 years ago (2001)
HeadquartersSan Francisco, California, United States
Key people
Nick Earl (CEO)
Eric Ludwig (EVP & CFO)
Matt Ricchetti (President of Studios)
Greg Cannon (VP of Finance)
Jesse Taylor (SVP of Studios)
Harry Liu (VP of 3rd Party Publishing)
Scott Leichtner (VP & General Counsel)
Revenue$223.1 million [1]
SubsidiariesPlayFirst
Websitewww.glu.com

Glu Mobile, Inc. (also known as Glu Games,stylised as glu) is a developer and publisher of mobile games for smartphone and tablet devices. Founded in San Francisco, California, in 2001 as Sorrent, Glu has since taken up office in a few countries. Glu offers products to multiple platforms including iOS, Android, Amazon, Windows Phone and Google Chrome.[2]

History

In December 2004, San Mateo, California-based Sorrent merged with London-based Macrospace. In June 2005 the merged company created a new corporate entity titled Glu.[3] That same year, Greg Ballard replaced Sorrent founder Scott Orr as CEO. In 2006 Glu Mobile acquired iFone and in 2007 it acquired Chinese mobile game producer Beijing Zhangzhong MIG Information Technology Co. Ltd. ("MIG"). In September 2007, Glu Mobile announced the launch of Asteroids for mobile phones.[4] In March 2008 Glu Mobile acquired San Clemente-based mobile developer Superscape.

In January 2010, Niccolo de Masi joined Glu Mobile as the President and CEO. Mr. de Masi was previously CEO at Hands-On Mobile. Since his arrival, Glu has transitioned to a freemium business model focused around Glu's original IP.

On August 2, 2011, Glu Mobile acquired Griptonite Games. Its staff of 200 "approximately doubles" Glu's internal development capacity.[5]

Glu Mobile bought Gamespy Technologies (the entity responsible for GameSpy multiplayer services) from IGN Entertainment in August 2012,[6] and proceeded in December to raise integration costs and shut down servers for many older games, including the Star Wars: Battlefront series, Sniper Elite, Microsoft Flight Simulator X and Neverwinter Nights, with no warning to developers or consumers, much to the outrage of communities of those games.[7] GameSpy Technologies remains operational and has not made any announcements of a pending shutdown; the two GameSpy companies were separate entities and only related by name.[8] Glu mobile is also responsible for shutting down online multiplayer servers for several titles on the Nintendo DS and Wii, such as Mario Kart DS, Super Smash Bros Brawl, and Mario Kart Wii, causing much controversy and anger. Glu shut down the rest of Gamespy effective on May 31, 2014.[9]

On September 3, 2014, PlayFirst was acquired by Glu Mobile. The official statement from Glu Mobile CEO, Niccolo de Masi, read "We are pleased to officially add PlayFirst to the Glu family and look forward to delivering new DASH products to a worldwide audience,"[10]

In April 2015, China Tencent paid $126 Million for a 15 % stake in Glu Mobile.[11]

Ownership

The majority stake of Glu Mobile shares are held by institutions, at the start of the third quarter of 2012, institutional ownership was 78% of the outstanding shares according to Google Finance.[12]

The top 15 institutional shareholders ranked by holding size at the start of the second quarter of 2012 according to NASDAQ statistics[13] are the following.

Institution Name Date Shares Held
New Enterprise Associates Management Company, LLC 06/30/2012 5,943,793
AlphaOne Investment Services, LLC 06/30/2012 3,233,900
Allianz Asset Management AG 06/30/2012 2,371,465
Columbia Partners, L.L.C. Investment Management 06/30/2012 2,224,931
Becker Drapkin Management, LP 06/30/2012 1,795,500
Wells Fargo & Co. 06/30/2012 1,759,337
SRS Investment Management, LLC 06/30/2012 1,710,000
Barclays Global Investors UK Holdings Limited 06/30/2012 1,562,733
Archon Capital Management LLC 06/30/2012 1,328,800
The Vanguard Group, Inc. 06/30/2012 1,233,378
Driehaus Capital Management LLC 06/30/2012 1,192,068
BlackRock Fund Advisors 06/30/2012 1,176,925
The Bank of New York Mellon Corp 06/30/2012 1,024,227
Washington Capital Management, Inc. 06/30/2012 951,818
S Squared Technology, LLC 06/30/2012 863,900

Games published

See also

  • PlayFirst, its subsidiary, was acquired by Glu Mobile on September 3, 2014

References

  1. ^ http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=207033&p=irol-sec
  2. ^ http://www.glu.com/about
  3. ^ "Glu". Edge. Future plc. 16 June 2005. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
  4. ^ "Glu Mobile Inc : Glu Launches Asteroids(TM) on Mobile Phones Worldwide". September 4, 2007. Retrieved Jul 14, 2013.
  5. ^ http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/126331/Glu_Mobile_Picks_Up_Griptonite_Blammo_After_Narrowing_Losses.php
  6. ^ "Glu Acquires GameSpy Technology to Expand Connected, Cross-platform Mobile Leadership". Glu Mobile. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
  7. ^ "Glu Shutting Down Multiplayer for GameSpy-based PC Titles". Tom's Hardware. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
  8. ^ "A Tale of Two GameSpys". GameSpy. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
  9. ^ "Star Wars Battlefront 2, Empire at War going offline due to GameSpy shutdown". Polygon. Retrieved May 14, 2014.
  10. ^ PlayFirst (2014-09-03). "Glu Mobile Completes Acquisition of PlayFirst". PlayFirst. Retrieved 2014-09-03.
  11. ^ "Tencent Will Pay $126 Million for 15 Percent Stake in Glu Mobile". re/code. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
  12. ^ https://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:GLUU#
  13. ^ http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/gluu/institutional-holdings#
  14. ^ "Bug Village : a real pest of a game". BestWP7Games. 22 January 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  15. ^ "Gun Bros Freemium dual stick xBox Live shooter". BestWP7Games. 12 July 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
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