Glu Mobile


Glu Mobile Inc. is an American developer and publisher of mobile games for smartphone and tablet devices. Founded in San Francisco, California, in 2001, Glu offers products to multiple platforms including iOS, Android, Amazon, Windows Phone and Google Chrome.

History

In December 2004, San Mateo, California-based Sorrent merged with London-based Macrospace. In June 2005 the merged company created a new corporate name: Glu Mobile. 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.. In September 2007, Glu Mobile announced the launch of Asteroids for mobile phones. 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. 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 double" Glu's internal development capacity.
Glu Mobile bought Gamespy Technologies from IGN Entertainment in August 2012, and proceeded in December to raise integration costs and shut down servers for many older games, including the series, Sniper Elite, Microsoft Flight Simulator X and Neverwinter Nights, with no warning to developers or consumers. GameSpy Technologies remained operational and did not make any announcements of an impending shutdown; the two GameSpy companies were separate entities and only related by name. Glu mobile also shut 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. Glu shut down the rest of Gamespy effective on May 31, 2014.
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,"
In April 2015, China Tencent paid $126 million for a 15% stake in Glu Mobile. Now 20.8% as of 2017
On December 22, 2016, it was announced that Glu Mobile had acquired the trivia game QuizUp for 7.5 million.
In November 2016, Nick Earl became CEO. 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.

Games published