SingTel buys 35 percent stake in TheMobileGamer for $1.5M
Southeast Asia's largest telco SingTel has acquired a 35 percent stake in a Singapore-based mobile social gaming platform, TheMobileGamer (TMG) for S$1.8 million (US$1.5 million). TMG specializes in aggregating, distributing, licensing and developing mobile gaming software.
In a filing with the Singapore Exchange on Tuesday, SingTel announced its wholly-owned subsidiary, SingTel Idea Factory, entered into a conditional sale and purchase agreement to acquire the shares from "certain of its founding members".
The telco also entered a conditional share subscription agreement for an extra 11,481,056 new Series B preferred shares at S$0.107 (US$0.087) per share in the share capital of TMG.
It added Japanese telco Softbank, would also be investing in TMG under the same terms.
Following the completion of the share subscription and acquisition, both telcos are expected to hold a 41 percent stake each in the gaming platform. TMG's net asset value last year was S$224,019 (US$182,591), according to the filing.
The acquisition by SingTel comes less than a week after it bought New York-based photo sharing company Pixable for US$26.5 million. It follows a spate of purchases earlier this year to bolster its service offerings when it acquired restaurant review portal HungryGoWhere.com for US$9.4 million in May, and Eatability in Australia for US$6.3 million in July.
SingTel had also made a push into mobile advertising, with the acquisition of U.S.-based Amobee for US$321 million in March, and Sillicon Valley startup, AdJitsu, for an undisclosed sum in May.