Publishers Clearing House Buys Funtank, Candystand.com

Sweepstakes and direct marketing firm Publishers Clearing House has purchased NYC-based developer Funtank and its Candystand.com portal, which hosts casual, social, mobile, and branded games. Founded in 1997 by Nabisco's Life Savers, Candystand.com started off as a site for branded and sponsored online games. Ownership of the portal first exchanged hands when Wrigley acquired the company in 2004, and then again when Funtank bought the site in 2008. In the past year, visitors have viewed the site over 137 million times and spent almost 13 million hours playing more than 200 free-to-play online titles. Candystand.com currently has 11 million monthly users and has free games available for iOS devices, PSP, and Facebook. Publishers Clearing House believes that adding the Funtank team to its staff will strengthen its emerging casual games business, enhance its ad offerings, and "attract, retain and build even bigger audiences across the web as well as social and mobile platforms." It also says that adding Candystand.com to its online offerings -- such as PCHGames.com, PCHSearchandWin.com, and six other properties -- will enhance its ability to provide a wider range of opportunities to play and win in addition to its traditional sweepstakes. The firm will absorb Funtank as a subsidiary, though the developer will keep its current offices in New York City. Funtank's co-founders James Baker and Scott Tannen will continue to lead the studio. Neither Publishers Clearing House or Funtank disclosed financial terms for the deal. "Candystand and the Funtank team will be key in driving Publishers Clearing House's social, mobile and web game development capabilities and provide our advertisers with more scale and reach across the online gaming audience," says PCH Online's VP and GM Josh Glantz. "We look forward to combining our unique media offerings as well as promotional and sweepstakes expertise with their creativity to reach new audiences, deliver new experiences and develop new businesses."