Glu Mobile Shares Begin Trading

San Mateo developer and publisher Glu Mobile announced its initial public offering of 7,300,000 shares of common stock, at a price to the public of $11.50 per share, beginning trading on Thursday 22nd March, with afterhours share value already rising to $12.35. The company has also granted underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,095,000 shares from Glu and certain selling stockholders. Glu's common stock is listed on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol "GLUU". Glu Mobile, developer of titles such as Project Gotham Racing Mobile and Stranded, filed the IPO with intent to raise $92 million in common stock after consistent losses since 2003, with a net deficit of $43.7 million as of September 30, 2006. Glu Mobile are now only the second mobile games company listed on Nasdaq after Jamdat Mobile, now owned by EA. Goldman, Sachs & Co. are the sole book-runner for the offering, with Lehman Brothers Inc. acting as co-lead manager, and Banc of America Securities LLC and Needham & Company, LLC acting as co-managers. A registration statement relating to the offering was filed with and declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Glu Mobile was most recently revealed to be publishing new titles for the N-Gage platform. The first Glu title currently planned for the platform is World Series of Poker Texas Hold'em. [Further coverage of mobile game news and features is available at new CMP Game Group site GamesOnDeck, from which this story is cross-posted.]