Reliance to expand into the U.S. with mobile content
on August 23rd, 2008 at 12:26 pmNEW YORK: The media and entertainment division of the Indian conglomerate Reliance ADA Group is starting Jump Games U.S.A., a publisher and developer of mobile video games, in its latest effort to expand into the United States.
Reliance Big Entertainment, which has been working to build up a name in Hollywood, said on Wednesday that Jump Games was “aggressively looking” to buy mobile content licenses and brands for distribution to mobile phones worldwide.
The company, which has licenses to create and sell games worldwide using popular brands like Manchester United Football Club, did not give details of acquisition targets.
Jump Games, which has set up its U.S. headquarters in Chicago, expects “partnerships and alliances with America’s biggest firms will be critical” to expand in the United States, Reliance said.
It said Jump Games had appointed Amit Khanduja, a former Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard executive, as executive vice president for the Americas.
Reliance, which is controlled by the billionaire Anil Ambani, signed deals in May with eight Hollywood production houses run by A-list actors, including Smokehouse Productions, which is run by George Clooney; Playtone Productions, run by Tom Hanks; and Plan B Entertainment, run by Brad Pitt.
The company is also expected to clinch a deal with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen to set up a new studio that would split Spielberg and Geffen from Paramount Pictures, sources familiar with the deal said.
