PocketGear acquires smartphone apps provider Handango

Cross-platform app store PocketGear announced its acquisition of smartphone applications provider Handango, creating a combined content marketplace with more than 140,000 premium and free titles optimized for platforms including Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian and Palm. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. The post-acquisition company will continue to operate under the PocketGear brand--president and CEO Jud Bowman will retain the same title, while Handango CEO Alex Bloom will transition to PocketGear COO.

Handango will join the PocketGear network of direct-to-consumer app storefronts, which also includes SymbianGear.com, AndroidGear.com, RIMGear.com, Smartphone.net and PalmGear.com--more than 1,000 developers are also leveraging the firm's developer storefront solutions to market and sell their software directly from their own websites and other marketing channels. According to PocketGear, together with Handango it has generated more than $400 million in mobile application revenues to date, reaching customers in more than 175 countries and spanning in excess of 2,000 unique mobile device models.

For more on the PocketGear/Handango deal:
- read this release

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