Chinese outfit NetDragon acquires Neopets owner JumpStart

Chinese online game developer and operator NetDragon Websoft has acquired L.A.-based educational game specialist, JumpStart. 

Since being founded in 1991 Jumpstart has become a leading developer of educational games, and manages an array of titles including JumpStart, Math Blaster, and Neopets -- the latter of which has over 75 million registered users. 

Apart from its own flagship brands, the U.S. studio has also built longstanding partnerships with big companies like DreamWorks Animation to produce educational material and games based on popular movie franchises like Madagascar and How To Train Your Dragon. 

NetDragon wants to combine its online community building know-how with JumpStart's knack for creating hit educational titles to create "innovative and world-class learning products."

"The excellent management team led by David Lord, CEO of JumpStart, has built very impressive and popular educational games that are extremely valuable additions to NetDragon's product offerings," said Dr. Simon Leung, vice chairman and executive director at NetDragon.

"Through this acquisition, we will tap into their excellent relationship with DreamWorks and utilize their IPs to enhance our existing products. We believe this strategic acquisition will open up tremendous opportunities for both NetDragon and JumpStart to offer innovative and world-class learning products to our users."