Glu Buys Into China, Spends Up To $39.7 Million For MIG

Glu (NSDQ: GLUU) has announced plans to buy Beijing Zhangzhong MIG Information Technology (MIG), a Chinese mobile games company. Glu will pay $14.7 million upfront in cash, with additional payments of up to $25 million in cash and stock to be based on the achievement of certain financial milestones next year, with some of the payments subject to the continued employment of the principal officers of MIG (which sounds like there’s some expertise there that Glu doesn’t want to lose too soon). Wang Bin, the CEO of MIG, will continue with Glu as General Manager focused on China and Glu will add MIG’s roughly 80 employees to its team. The MIG team will work with Glu’s Beijing office to develop games for China and (possibly) the world. Glu expects only modest revenue from MIG for 2008, this is more of a way to expand its presence in China with the expectation that the Chinese market will grow.