Glu Mobile agrees to acquire Diner Dash developer PlayFirst

The mobile developer responsible for deer-hunting, robotic-policing, and eternal-warring is getting into the Diner Dash business.

Glu Mobile, which makes Deer Hunter, Robocop, and Eternity Warriors, announced that it has acquired Diner Dash developer PlayFirst for a $12 million all-stock deal. This brings the full lineup of Dash properties as well as PlayFirst’s development team under Glu’s control. This adds another popular brand to its stable of properties, which will help it continue its recent success that is largely driven by the big bucks its free-to-play Deer Hunter releases are making. The deal will also have Glu taking on approximately $3.5 million of PlayFirst’s debt, and it will likely close in May.

With over 750 million downloads across all of the Dash games over the last 10 years, Glu can build on the success of the franchise will also adapting it for today’s more lucrative business models.

“We believe the acquisition is an interesting opportunity, as Glu is buying intellectual property with historical value that didn’t make the transition to free-to-play but still could with Glu’s expertise,” Cowen & Company analyst Doug Creutz wrote in a note to investors.

That expertise includes bringing established brands like Deer Hunter to mobile and turning it into a massive free-to-play success. Creutz notes that the Deer Hunter acquisition “paid off handsomely” for Glu.

This move also represents Glu’s continuing efforts to move away from bigger, flashier games to brands that players respond to.

“It’s entirely about the power of the franchise and the teams behind them,” Glu chief executive Niccolo de Masi said.

Glu finished the first quarter of 2014 with a $133,000 profit, which is up from a $5.5 million loss in the same period of 2013. That’s with revenues of $47 million, which is the largest in Glu history. Now, with PlayFirst and Diner Dash in hand, the company is expecting even better result for the rest of the year.

For the full year, Glu is anticipating profits of $5 million to $6.7 million on revenues somewhere between $155 million and $161.5 million. That would represent a growth of 37 percent to 42 percent year over year.