Disneyhas purchased iPhone gaming company Tapulous. They are now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Disney Interactive Media Group.
Tapulous builds mobile games for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.
Tapulous founders, Bart Decrem and Andrew Lacy, as well as their development team in Palo Alto, Calif. will be joining DIMG’s mobile content group, Disney said. Decrem and Lacy, previously CEO and COO of Tapulous, will now take on the leadership roles for the DIMG mobile group with Decrem reporting to DIMG President Steve Wadsworth.
Tapulous games, like Tap Tap Revenge and Riddim Ribbon, have been downloaded by 30% of iPhone and iPod Touch users. The former, Tapulous says, has been installed 35 million times, and stands as the most popular game on Apple’s App Store.
With this purchase, Disney moves into production of app-distributed mobile games, and the two-year-old Tapulous gets a big shoulder behind its wheel.
A PR rep for Tapulous said Disney have a “do no harm” approach to the buy.
“They want to maintain the nimbleness and innovative spirit that has made Tapulous so successful to date. Tapulous and Disney also have a strong shared vision for the future of mobile social entertainment-in fact, that shared vision played a major factor in this deal.”
All Tapulous employees are being retained.
