Oberon Acquires Interactive TV Distributor PixelPlay

New York-based casual games company Oberon Media has announced it is to acquire PixelPlay, a games and entertainment distributor in the interactive TV market, in a deal intended to address the needs of telecommunications, cable and satellite operators seeking to launch multi-platform game services. The move, which follows Oberon's recent acquisition of indie casual mobile games company I-play, is part of what the company calls its "triple-play" strategy, aiming to position itself as a "one-stop-shop" enabling advertisers to launch interactive campaigns across mobile, television and web platforms. Oberon says it is experiencing revenue growth at a rate of 100 percent annually, with an intellectual property portfolio comprised of over a thousand titles delivered by 350 global wireless and online distribution partners including Microsoft, Comcast, BskyB, Sprint, AT&T, Yahoo Games, Verizon, Electronic Arts, AOL Games, France Telecom and NHN. As for PixelPlay, it brings Oberon its proprietary JIVE platform for creating, integrating and managing cross-platform multiplayer games on digital networks, as well as its iTV games portfolio, which includes "hundreds" of games, and licenses from Hasbro, Atari, WPT Enterprises Inc, the Learning Company / Riverdeep and many other casual game publishers, which include titles like Scrabble, Yahtzee, Centipede, Asteroids and CakeMania. “This acquisition advances Oberon Media’s triple-play strategy and positions us to reach players across three platforms, thereby increasing game service stickiness and subscriber retention,” said Oberon co-founder and head of business development Ofer Leidner, “This increases the appeal of Oberon’s white-label services to all our partners, from cable and satellite operators to telcos and game developers.”