Digital Chocolate Expands Global Footprint with New Operations in India and Spain

Monday August 13 3:00 PM

Digital Chocolate, Inc., a leading publisher of high-quality, original software for mobile phones, today announced its continued global expansion with the acquisition of operations and studios in Bangalore, India, and Barcelona, Spain, from Small Device Mobile Technologies and Microjocs Mobile, respectively. These acquisitions give Digital Chocolate the local talent to better serve and support the largest mobile operators in the world, and allow the company to develop localized content for consumers in southern Europe and Asia.

Small Device is a well-known leader in mobile applications porting with tremendous depth and scale. Coupled with Digital Chocolate's proprietary Catapult porting technology, the company's capacity stands to more than triple with the addition of the Operations Center in Bangalore, which will be headed by Dikshant Dave, managing director of APAC operations.

Digital Chocolate will also increase its Studio output capacity as well as add multi-platform expertise to its portfolio with the addition of the award-winning Microjocs Studio. Gerard Fernandez will continue to lead the Studio after the acquisition as an employee of Digital Chocolate.

"Just as the Bangalore Operations Center brings us a step closer to key regions in Asia, a strong presence in Barcelona is important to our expansion in Spanish-speaking parts of the world," said Gary Schofield, president of networks of Digital Chocolate. "With key sales executives in place - including Shrinivasa Sharma, former VP Sales for Small Device and Xavier Mas Kaupp, formerly with Gameloft - we are committed to aggressively pursuing these new markets."

In addition to the new growth in Asia and Europe, Digital Chocolate is experiencing key successes and significant growth in existing studios across Europe. The number of employees at the Helsinki, Finland, studio has grown 328 percent since its inception in 2004, and still employs all original co-founders. This studio is currently spearheading the launch of DChoc Cafe(TM) Series, a new series of casual games that is being embraced by mobile phone operators worldwide.

"Digital Chocolate now ranks as one of the largest independent, pureplay mobile game publishers with more than 300 employees worldwide," said Trip Hawkins, founder and CEO of Digital Chocolate. "We will continue to build on our development operation and effectively leverage our technology investments to deliver high-quality, original games for our customers on a global scale."

The expertise and reputation of both Small Device and Microjocs Mobile is synergistic with Digital Chocolate's business and will help the company become a significant force in these important markets.

About Digital Chocolate

Digital Chocolate is a leading developer of original, high-quality games and applications for mobile phones. Based in San Mateo, California and founded in 2003 by software gaming pioneer, Trip Hawkins, Digital Chocolate offers some of the world's most popular and top-rated games, already earning over 20 Game of the Year Awards and over 50 Editor's Awards by top gaming press. In 2006, it was named Best Games Developer at the Mobile Entertainment Awards, decided by a voting panel of over 300 mobile company executives including leading Operators, OEMs, Publishers and Developers. It was also named a 2006 Fierce 15 emerging wireless company for its innovation around community, networked and social games with products like award-winning MLSN Sports Picks, and newly released AvaPeeps(TM): FlirtNation. Since its inception, Digital Chocolate has secured relationships with more than 200 carriers and partners, including Verizon Wireless, Sprint, Vodafone, T-Mobile, Cingular, Orange and 3 and its products are available in over 60 countries around the world. For more information, please visit www.digitalchocolate.com.

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