Acquisitions

Nexon, which runs the popular Asian MMOG MapleStory and recently announced deals to launch Eve Online and Counter-Strike Online 2 in Asia, hinted last week that it was keen on the acquisition of more game developers, but CFO Owen Mahoney told Bloomberg the company was looking at Japanese mobile developers. More >

Announced in a press release, the deal is subject to approval by Starbreeze's shareholders, and includes all of Overkill's technology and IP. That includes Payday: The Heist, which has been downloaded over 400,000 times on PC and PS3 since its release last October; Overkill is already at work on expansions and a sequel. More >

MCV reports that the buyer is Cherrilux Investments which, like Baker Acquisitions, the company that bought Game's UK stores out of administration, was set up by private equity firm OpCapita for the purpose of the deal. More >

Rovio has added the game development division of the Finnish benchmark software creator so that it can make more games, while also allowing Futuremark to concentrate on its benchmarking business. More >

Royal Bank of Scotland has tabled a bid to buy Game Group out of administration, The Sunday Times reports. More >

A number of companies are being linked with a buyout of Game Group after the nation's largest specialist videogame retailer filed for administration yesterday. Retail Week (via MCV) reports that "five or six" companies are circling Game, which put itself into administration, giving it ten days to keep creditors at bay while it finds a buyer. More >

Electronic Arts has attempted to put a positive spin on Zynga's acquisition of New York studio OMGPOP, saying the reported $180 million buyout of the Draw Something developer shows what good value EA got when it acquired PopCap last year. More >

Zynga has acquired social game developer OMGPOP for a fee reported to be in the region of $180 million (£114m). More >

Australian developer Halfbrick Studios says it intends to expand the likes of Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride to "web platforms and Facebook" following the acquisition of Spanish firm Onan Games. The Valencia-based company developed Mandreel, which enables developers to support iOS, Android, Flash and HTML5 from a single C++ codebase. More >

Zynga is one of a number of firms keen on an acquisition of Draw Something developer OMGPOP, according to reports. TechCrunch reports that Zynga is already in talks to buy the New York-based developer of what is now the most popular game on Facebook with 12.2 million daily active users, and has been downloaded 30 million times on mobile devices. More >

Game Group has confirmed that it has been approached by a third party, believed to be retail salvage specialist OpCapita, about helping the UK's largest specialist videogame retailer avoid administration. Yesterday The Times reported that OpCapita - which bought another struggling UK chain, Comet, for £2 last month - had offered to buy Game's debt from its lenders. In a statement, the retailer confirmed that preliminary discussions had taken place - but warned that there was no guarantee of a reversal in its fortunes. More >

US retail chain Walmart has contacted Game Group about a possible acquisition of the ailing UK retailer, according to reports. MCV claims that Walmart has made contact about a buyout, in contrast to GameStop, which is reportedly waiting for Game to go into administration with a view to picking up the UK's largest specialist videogame retailer on the cheap. More >

Apple looks set to give a thorough overhaul to the App Store to improve discoverability following the acquisition of Chomp. Chomp's search engine, available on iOS and Android as a standalone app, enables users to search not just by title - which, obviously, requires that users know what they're looking for - but by type. More >

Sony has completed the buyout of its partnership with Sony Ericsson. The deal, announced in October, nets Ericsson €1.05 billion (£870m) in return for its 50 per cent stake in the partnership, which began in 2001. Sony has completed the buyout of its partnership with Sony Ericsson. The deal, announced in October, nets Ericsson €1.05 billion (£870m) in return for its 50 per cent stake in the partnership, which began in 2001. More >

Nintendo has acquired Mobiclip, a French company specialising in video compression technology. Gamasutra reports that the deal was actually completed last October, but has only just been announced. It gives Nintendo access to Mobiclip's technology, which handles playback of high-quality video with low battery consumption and which it has previously used in the Game Boy Advance and DS handhelds. More >

Disney has announced plans to acquire a controlling stake in UTV, an Indian media company whose UTV Ignition division developed El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron and published Denki's Quarrel. The deal, the terms of which were not disclosed, gives Disney access to UTV's 247 million consumers and instantly makes it India's leading film studio. UTV CEO Ronnie Screwvala has been appointed managing director of The Walt Disney Company India. More >

A group of former staff at publisher THQ have called for four "underqualified" senior executives, including CEO Brian Farrell, to be fired. In a letter sent to THQ's board of directors and several investors, blind copied to a NeoGaf user, the former employees claim that "chronic and constant mismanagement" caused a slew of layoffs and studio closures and drove the publisher's share price into the doldrums. More >