Tira Wireless has sold the rights to its mobile publishing division to Airborne Entertainment in a move Tira said will allow it to focus solely on developing mobile technology.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Airborne acquired rights to all of Tira’s games, applications, brands and distribution contracts, the companies said. The Java-based portfolio includes content and applications from such noted names as Cosmopolitan, TV Guide and the National Hockey League.
Tira said it jettisoned its 3-year-old publishing division to concentrate on its core business of developing technology addressing device and market fragmentation. Tira Jump, an automated porting platform for mobile Java applications, has reportedly been used to create and optimize more than 3,000 versions of branded titles across multiple devices and languages.
“This sale sharpens our focus on providing the tools and technologies required by our customers to overcome fragmentation and better manage the deployment of mobile content,” said Paul Schaut, Tira’s chief executive officer. “Now we can concentrate all of our energies on further serving this market and extending our porting technology.”
With the acquisition, Airborne adds to a stable of branding partners that includes Maxim, 20th Century Fox, Wine Spectator, HBO and The Food Network. Airborne recently announced downloadable wallpaper, ring tones and jokes from the Just for Laughs Festival, a Canadian event that draws nearly 2 million people annually.
The transaction is another step toward what analysts believe is much-needed consolidation in the mobile content arena-particularly among game developers and publishers.
“The acquisition underscores our vision and success in addressing the needs of consumer and business brands to create new revenue streams and to reach their customers through the mobile channel,” said Garner Bornstein, Airborne’s CEO. “It allows us to further our goal of providing a world-class branded mobile media publishing platform at a time when consumption of mobile content is at an all-time growth inflection point.”
