Posted on: Friday, April 22, 2005
Isle game firm bought for $137M
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Blue Lava Wireless, a Honolulu-based developer of games for wireless phones, is being acquired by Jamdat Mobile Inc. for $137 million.
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser Blue Lava's 50 full- and part-time employees and development team will maintain a studio in Honolulu, Rogers said.
Jamdat will pay about $60 million in cash, 4.05 million shares of stock and a deferred payment of $13.7 million in Jamdat's choice of cash or stock.
Jamdat, which went public in September, competes with Electronic Arts Inc., THQ Inc., and Japan's Namco to develop games and programs for cell phones. Blue Lava develops and publishes mobile games.
Yesterday, shares of Jamdat rose $2.48, or 16% to close at $18.19 on Nasdaq.
Tetris, originally created in the former Soviet Union in 1985, is among the best selling mobile games worldwide. Rogers, along with Tetris inventor Alexey Pajitnov, owns exclusive rights to the game through a separate company called Tetris Holding.
Rogers will manage Jamdat's wireless Tetris franchise and join its board of directors.
The deal gives Los Angeles-based Jamdat a 15-year worldwide license for the game Tetris on cell phones. For 3-year-old Blue Lava, the deal provides a marketing and sales boost that should open doors at cell-phone service providers, said Blue Lava founder and chief executive, Henk Rogers.
Blue Lava's John K. Morris displays Tetris Deluxe on his cell phone at the firm's Manoa office.
