GigaMedia will buy top Asian game portal FunTown, the company said Monday.
GigaMedia Limited said in release that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire FunTown, a leading Asian online casual game portal and operator of the world's largest online Mahjong game site in terms of revenue.
"With FunTown, we enter the fastest growing segment of online gaming, casual gaming, with a commanding lead," explained GigaMedia CEO Arthur Wang. "The acquisition is both highly strategic and highly accretive -- driving significant earnings growth in 2006 and beyond."
Mahjong is a traditional Asian table game, called the poker of Asia, with an estimated potential market of over 1 billion players.
Copyright 2005 by United Press International
Related stories:
IBM builds online version of China's famed Forbidden City
IBM on Friday opened online doors to a virtual version of the famed Forbidden City in China that served for centuries as an exclusive realm for the nation's emperors.
Computer mouse driven by sound
Say "ahh" and the cursor zips toward the northeast corner of the computer screen. "Ooo" sends it shooting straight south. Want it to head southeast? Say "ohh." To make the cursor do a circle or figure 8, let vowel sounds bleed into one another, like eee into ahh into aww and so on. You can make it hurry or slow by regulating the volume of your voice. To open a link, make a soft clicking sound.
Sony says to launch 80GB PS3 in Japan this month
Sony said Thursday it will launch a beefed-up version of its PlayStation 3 in Japan this month at the same price as the current version but with double the storage capacity.
Sony, Microsoft virtual communities to start
(AP) -- Video game rivals Sony and Microsoft are going head-to-head in virtual worlds for their home consoles later this year.
Google gets into video games -- with ads
(AP) -- Google Inc., the leader in online search and advertising, is muscling in on video game territory - though it won't exactly be in the form of a shoot 'em up game.
'Color My Pyramid' nutrition education program battles obesity in DC schools
An online game might be the secret weapon for winning the war against childhood obesity. Researchers at George Mason University have designed and tested a nutrition education program called "Color My Pyramid" to teach students how to evaluate their dietary intake and activity level. The program incorporates the Department of Agriculture's
MyPyramid.gov for Kids Blast-Off Game, an interactive computer game that allows kids to win by fueling their rocket with nutritious foods and a healthy level of physical activity.
Peer-to-peer networking takes internet out of the equation
(PhysOrg.com) -- When people working on a project get together with their laptops and PDAs, they share information via the internet and a client server. But new software developed by European researchers allows independent, ad hoc, secure networking anywhere.
South Korea's free computer game model hits US
Free computer game play that is all the rage in South Korean is taking hold in a US market dominated by videogames sold on packaged disks or by online subscriptions.