Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the following risk factors and all other information contained in this prospectus before purchasing our common stock. If any of the following risks occurs, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be seriously harmed. In that case, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you might lose some or all of your investment.

 

 

We have incurred significant losses since inception, including a net loss of $8.3 million in 2004, a net loss of $17.9 million in 2005 and a net loss of $12.3 million in 2006. As of December 31, 2006, we had an accumulated deficit of $46.0 million. We expect to continue to increase expenses as we implement initiatives designed to continue to grow our business, including, among other things, the development and marketing of new games, further international expansion, expansion of our infrastructure, acquisition of content, and general and administrative expenses associated with being a public company. If our revenues do not increase to offset these expected increases in operating expenses, we will continue to incur significant losses and will not become profitable. Our revenue growth in recent periods should not be considered indicative of our future performance. In fact, in future periods, our revenues could decline. Accordingly, we may not be able to achieve profitability in the future.

 

We were incorporated in May 2001 and began selling mobile games in July 2002. Accordingly, we have only a limited history of generating revenues, and the future revenue potential of our business in this emerging market is uncertain. As a result of our short operating history, we have limited financial data that can be used to evaluate our business. Any evaluation of our business and our prospects must be considered in light of our limited operating history and the risks and uncertainties encountered by companies in our stage of development. As an early stage company in the emerging mobile entertainment industry, we face increased risks, uncertainties, expenses and difficulties. To address these risks and uncertainties, we must do the following:

 

 

 

We may be unable to accomplish one or more of these objectives, which could cause our business to suffer. In addition, accomplishing many of these efforts might be very expensive, which could adversely impact our operating results and financial condition.

 

Our revenues and operating results could vary significantly from quarter to quarter because of a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. As a result, comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. In addition, we may not be able to predict our future revenues or results of operations. We base our current and future expense levels on our internal operating plans and sales forecasts, and our operating costs are to a large extent fixed. As a result, we may not be able to reduce our costs sufficiently to compensate for an unexpected shortfall in revenues, and even a small shortfall in revenues could disproportionately and adversely affect financial results for that quarter. Individual games and carrier relationships represent meaningful portions of our revenues and net loss in any quarter. We may incur significant or unanticipated expenses when licenses are renewed. In addition, some payments from carriers that we recognize as revenue on a cash basis may be delayed unpredictably.

 

In addition to other risk factors discussed in this section, factors that may contribute to the variability of our quarterly results include:

 

 

 

As a result of these and other factors, our operating results may not meet the expectations of investors or public market analysts who choose to follow our company. Failure to meet market expectations would likely result in decreases in the trading price of our common stock.

 

 

The development, distribution and sale of mobile games is a highly competitive business. For end users, we compete primarily on the basis of brand, game quality and price. For wireless carriers, we compete for deck placement based on these factors, as well as historical performance and perception of sales potential and relationships with licensors of brands and other intellectual property. For content and brand licensors, we compete based on royalty and other economic terms, perceptions of development quality, porting abilities, speed of execution, distribution breadth and relationships with carriers. We also compete for experienced and talented employees.

 

Our primary competitors include Digital Chocolate, Electronic Arts (EA Mobile), Gameloft, Hands-On Mobile, I-play, Namco and THQ, with Electronic Arts having the largest market share of any company in the mobile games market. In the future, likely competitors include major media companies, traditional video game publishers, content aggregators, mobile software providers and independent mobile game publishers. Carriers may also decide to develop, internally or through a managed third-party developer, and distribute their own mobile games. If carriers enter the mobile game market as publishers, they might refuse to distribute some or all of our games or might deny us access to all or part of their networks.

 

Some of our competitors’ and our potential competitors’ advantages over us, either globally or in particular geographic markets, include the following:

 

 

If we are unable to compete effectively or we are not as successful as our competitors in our target markets, our sales could decline, our margins could decline and we could lose market share, any of which would materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

Revenues derived from mobile games and other applications based on or incorporating brands or other intellectual property licensed from third parties accounted for 80.5% and 88.4% of our revenues in 2005 and 2006, respectively. In 2006, revenues derived from our four largest licensors, Atari, Fox, PopCap Games and Celador, together accounted for approximately 58.1% of our revenues. Even if mobile games based on licensed content or brands remain popular, any of our licensors could decide not to renew our existing license or not to license additional intellectual property and instead license to our competitors or develop and publish its own mobile games or other applications, competing with us in the marketplace. Many of these licensors already develop games for other platforms, and may have significant experience and development resources available to them should they decide to compete with us rather than license to us.

 

We have both exclusive and non-exclusive licenses and both licenses that are global and licenses that are limited to specific geographies, often with other mobile game publishers having rights to geographies not covered by our licenses. Our licenses generally have terms that range from two to five years, with the primary exceptions being our six-year licenses covering World Series of Poker and Deer Hunter 2 and our seven-year license covering Kasparov Chess. Licenses for intellectual property that have terminated or will terminate in 2007 or that will terminate in 2008 represented 53.2% and 19.6%, respectively, of our revenues in 2006. Some of the licenses that we have inherited through acquisitions provide that the licensor owns the intellectual property that we develop in the mobile version of the game and that, when our license expires, the licensor can transfer that intellectual property to a new licensee. Increased competition for licenses may lead to larger guarantees, advances and royalties that we must pay to our licensors, which could significantly increase our cost of revenues and cash usage. We may be unable to renew these licenses or to renew them on terms favorable to us, and we may be unable to secure alternatives in a timely manner. Failure to maintain or renew our existing licenses or to obtain additional licenses would impair our ability to introduce new mobile games or to continue to offer our current games, which would materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition. Some of our existing licenses impose, and licenses that we obtain in the future might impose, development, distribution and marketing obligations on us. If we breach our obligations, our licensors might have the right to terminate the license or change an exclusive license to a non-exclusive license, which would harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

Even if we are successful in gaining new licenses or extending existing licenses, we may fail to anticipate the entertainment preferences of our end users when making choices about which brands or other content to license. If the entertainment preferences of end users shift to content or brands owned or developed by companies with which we do not have relationships, we may be unable to establish and maintain successful relationships with these developers and owners, which would materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition. In addition, some rights are licensed from licensors that have or may develop financial difficulties, and may enter into bankruptcy protection under U.S. federal law or the laws of other countries. If any of our licensors files for bankruptcy, our licenses might be impaired or voided, which could materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

Our future success is highly dependent upon maintaining successful relationships with the wireless carriers with which we currently work and establishing new carrier relationships in

geographies where we have not yet established a significant presence. A significant portion of our revenues is derived from a very limited number of carriers. In 2006, we derived approximately 20.6% of our revenues from subscribers of Verizon Wireless, 12.6% of our revenues from subscribers of Sprint Nextel affiliates, 11.3% of our revenues from subscribers of Cingular Wireless and 10.6% of our revenues from subscribers of Vodafone. During 2005, we derived approximately 24.3%, 11.9%, 11.9% and 6.2%, respectively, of our revenues from subscribers of these carriers. In 2005 and 2006, subscribers from carriers representing the next ten largest sources of our revenues represented 25.6% and 23.8% of our revenues, respectively, although some of the carriers represented in this group varied from period to period. We expect that we will continue to generate a substantial majority of our revenues through distribution relationships with fewer than 20 carriers for the foreseeable future. Our failure to maintain our relationships with these carriers would materially reduce our revenues and thus harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

Our carrier agreements do not establish us as the exclusive provider of mobile games with the carriers and typically have a term of one or two years with automatic renewal provisions upon expiration of the initial term, absent a contrary notice from either party. In addition, the carriers usually can terminate these agreements early and, in some instances, at any time without cause, which could give them the ability to renegotiate economic or other terms. The agreements generally do not obligate the carriers to market or distribute any of our games. In many of these agreements, we warrant that our games do not contain libelous or obscene content, do not contain material defects or viruses, and do not violate third-party intellectual property rights and we indemnify the carrier for any breach of a third party’s intellectual property. In addition, our agreements with a substantial minority of our carriers, including Verizon Wireless, allow the carrier to set the retail price at a level different from the price implied by our negotiated revenue split, without a corresponding change to our wholesale price to the carrier. If one of these carriers raises the retail price of one of our games, unit demand for that game might decline, reducing our revenues, without necessarily reducing, and perhaps increasing, the total revenues that the carrier receives from sales of that game.

 

Many other factors outside our control could impair our ability to generate revenues through a given carrier, including the following:

 

 

If any of our carriers decides not to market or distribute our games or decides to terminate, not renew or modify the terms of its agreement with us or if there is consolidation among carriers generally, we may be unable to replace the affected agreement with acceptable alternatives, causing us to lose access to that carrier’s subscribers and the revenues they afford us, which could materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

Our business depends on developing and publishing mobile games that wireless carriers will place on their decks and end users will buy. We must continue to invest significant resources in licensing efforts, research and development, marketing and regional expansion to enhance our offering of games and introduce new games, and we must make decisions about these matters well in advance of product release in order to implement them in a timely manner. Our success depends, in part, on unpredictable and volatile factors beyond our control, including end-user preferences, competing games and the availability of other entertainment activities. If our games and related applications are not responsive to the requirements of our carriers or the entertainment preferences of end users, or they are not brought to market in a timely and effective manner, our business, operating results and financial condition would be harmed. Even if our games are successfully introduced and initially adopted, a subsequent shift in our carriers or the entertainment preferences of end users could cause a decline in our games’ popularity that could materially reduce our revenues and harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

 

Wireless carriers provide a limited selection of games that are accessible to their subscribers through a deck on their mobile handsets. The inherent limitation on the number of games available on the deck is a function of the limited screen size of handsets and carriers’ perceptions of the depth of menus and numbers of choices end users will generally utilize. Carriers typically provide one or more top level menus highlighting games that are recent top sellers, that the carrier believes will become top sellers or that the carrier otherwise chooses to feature, in addition to a link to a menu of additional games sorted by genre. We believe that deck placement on the top level or featured menu or toward the top of genre-specific or other menus, rather than lower down or in sub-menus, is likely to result in games achieving a greater degree of commercial success. If carriers choose to give our games less favorable deck placement, our games may be less successful than we anticipate, our revenues may decline and our business, operating results and financial condition may be materially harmed.

 

 

In our industry, new games are frequently introduced, but a relatively small number of games account for a significant portion of industry sales. Similarly, a significant portion of our revenues comes from a limited number of mobile games, although the games in that group have shifted over time. For example, in 2005 and 2006, we generated approximately 52.8% and 53.3% of our revenues, respectively, from our top ten games, but no individual game represented more than 10% of our revenues in either period. We expect to release a relatively small number of new games each year for the foreseeable future. If these games are not successful, our revenues could be limited and our business and operating results would suffer in both the year of release and thereafter.

 

In addition, the limited number of games that we release in a year may contribute to fluctuations in our operating results. Therefore, our reported results at quarter and year end may be affected based on the release dates of our products, which could result in volatility in the price of our common stock. If our competitors develop more successful games or offer them at lower prices or based on payment models, such as pay-for-play or subscription-based models, perceived as offering a better value proposition, or if we do not continue to develop consistently high-quality and well-received games, our revenues would likely decline and our business, operating results and financial condition would be harmed.

 

We believe that establishing and maintaining our brand is critical to retaining and expanding our existing relationships with wireless carriers and content licensors, as well as developing new relationships. Promotion of the Glu brand will depend on our success in providing high-quality mobile games. Similarly, recognition of our games by end users will depend on our ability to develop engaging games of high quality with attractive titles. However, our success will also depend, in part, on the services and efforts of third parties, over which we have little or no control. For instance, if our carriers fail to provide high levels of service, our end users’ ability to access our games may be interrupted, which may adversely affect our brand. If end users, branded content owners and carriers do not perceive our existing games as high-quality or if we introduce new games that are not favorably received by our end users and carriers, then we may be unsuccessful in building brand recognition and brand loyalty in the marketplace. In addition, globalizing and extending our brand and recognition of our games will be costly and will involve extensive management time to execute successfully. Further, the markets in which we operate are highly competitive and some of our competitors, such as Electronic Arts (EA Mobile), already have substantially more brand name recognition and greater marketing resources than we do. If we fail to increase brand awareness and consumer recognition of our games, our potential revenues could be limited, our costs could increase and our business, operating results and financial condition could suffer.

 

We depend on the continued contributions of our senior management and other key personnel, especially L. Gregory Ballard and Albert A. “Rocky” Pimentel. The loss of the services of any of our executive officers or other key employees could harm our business. All of our U.S. executive officers and key employees are at-will employees, which means they may terminate their employment relationship with us at any time. None of our U.S. employees is bound by a contractual non-competition agreement, which could make us vulnerable to recruitment efforts by our competitors. Internationally, while some employees and contractors are bound by non-competition agreements, we may experience difficulty in enforcing these agreements. We do not maintain a key-person life insurance policy on any of our officers or other employees.

 

Our future success also depends on our ability to identify, attract and retain highly skilled technical, managerial, finance, marketing and creative personnel. We face intense competition for qualified individuals from numerous technology, marketing and mobile entertainment companies. In addition, competition for qualified personnel is particularly intense in the San Francisco Bay Area, where our headquarters are located. Further, our principal overseas operations are based in London and Hong Kong, cities that, similar to our headquarters region, have high costs of living and consequently high compensation standards. Qualified individuals are in high demand, and we may incur significant costs to attract them. We may be unable to attract and retain suitably qualified individuals who are capable of meeting our growing creative, operational and managerial requirements, or may be required to pay increased compensation in order to do so. If we are unable to attract and retain the qualified personnel we need to succeed, our business would suffer.

 

Volatility or lack of performance in our stock price may also affect our ability to attract and retain our key employees. Many of our senior management personnel and other key employees have become, or will soon become, vested in a substantial amount of stock or stock options. Employees may be more likely to leave us if the shares they own or the shares underlying their options have significantly appreciated in value relative to the original purchase prices of the shares or the exercise prices of the options, or if the exercise prices of the options that they hold are significantly above the

market price of our common stock. If we are unable to retain our employees, our business, operating results and financial condition would be harmed.

 

We operate in an emerging market and have experienced, and may continue to experience, growth in our business through internal growth and acquisitions. This growth has placed, and may continue to place, significant demands on our management and our operational and financial infrastructure. In particular, we grew from approximately 130 employees at December 31, 2004 to more than 210 employees at September 30, 2005 in anticipation of revenues that did not immediately result. As a consequence, we had to terminate 27 employees in December 2005. Continued growth could strain our ability to:

 

 

Managing our growth will require significant expenditures and allocation of valuable management resources. If we fail to achieve the necessary level of efficiency in our organization as it grows, our business, operating results and financial condition would be harmed.

 

We have made recent acquisitions and, although we have no present understandings, commitments or agreements to do so, we may pursue further acquisitions, any of which could be material to our business, operating results and financial condition. Future acquisitions could divert management’s time and focus from operating our business. In addition, integrating an acquired company, business or technology is risky and may result in unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures. We may also use a portion of the net proceeds of this offering for the acquisition of, or investment in, companies, technologies, products or assets that complement our business. Future acquisitions or dispositions could result in potentially dilutive issuances of our equity securities, including our common stock, or the incurrence of debt, contingent liabilities, amortization expenses or acquired in-process research and development expenses, any of which could harm our financial condition and operating results. Future acquisitions may also require us to obtain additional financing, which may not be available on favorable terms or at all.

 

International acquisitions involve risks related to integration of operations across different cultures and languages, currency risks and the particular economic, political and regulatory risks associated with specific countries.

 

Some or all of these issues may result from our acquisitions of Macrospace in December 2004 and iFone in March 2006, each of which is based in the United Kingdom. If the anticipated benefits of either of these or future acquisitions do not materialize, we experience difficulties integrating iFone or businesses acquired in the future, or other unanticipated problems arise, our business, operating results and financial condition may be harmed.

 

In addition, a significant portion of the purchase price of companies we acquire may be allocated to acquired goodwill and other intangible assets, which must be assessed for impairment at least annually. In the future, if our acquisitions do not yield expected returns, we may be required to take charges to our earnings based on this impairment assessment process, which could harm our operating results.

 

International sales represented approximately 41.8% and 44.8% of our revenues in 2005 and 2006, respectively. In addition, as part of our international efforts, we acquired U.K.-based Macrospace in December 2004, opened our Hong Kong office in July 2005, expanded our presence in the European market with our acquisition of iFone in March 2006 and opened additional offices in Brazil, France and Germany in the second half of 2006. We expect to open additional international offices, and we expect international sales to continue to be an important component of our revenues. Risks affecting our international operations include:

 

 

In addition, developing user interfaces that are compatible with other languages or cultures can be expensive. As a result, our ongoing international expansion efforts may be more costly than we expect. Further, expansion into developing countries subjects us to the effects of regional instability, civil unrest and hostilities, and could adversely affect us by disrupting communications and making travel more difficult.

 

These risks could harm our international expansion efforts, which, in turn, could materially and adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

Our business is dependent, in part, on the commercial introduction of new handset models with enhanced features, including larger, higher resolution color screens, improved audio quality, and

greater processing power, memory, battery life and storage. We do not control the timing of these handset launches. Some new handsets are sold by carriers with one or more games or other applications pre-loaded, and many end users who download our games do so after they purchase their new handsets to experience the new features of those handsets. Some handset manufacturers give us access to their handsets prior to commercial release. If one or more major handset manufacturers were to cease to provide us access to new handset models prior to commercial release, we might be unable to introduce compatible versions of our games for those handsets in coordination with their commercial release, and we might not be able to make compatible versions for a substantial period following their commercial release. If, because of game launch delays, we miss the opportunity to sell games when new handsets are shipped or our end users upgrade to a new handset, or if we miss the key holiday selling period, either because the introduction of a new handset is delayed or we do not deploy our games in time for the holiday selling season, our revenues would likely decline and our business, operating results and financial condition would likely suffer.

 

Wireless carriers generally control the price charged for our mobile games either by approving or establishing the price of the games charged to their subscribers. Some of our carrier agreements also restrict our ability to change prices. In cases where carrier approval is required, approvals may not be granted in a timely manner or at all. A failure or delay in obtaining these approvals, the prices established by the carriers for our games, or changes in these prices could adversely affect market acceptance of those games. Similarly, for the significant minority of our carriers, including Verizon Wireless, when we make changes to a pricing plan (the wholesale price and the corresponding suggested retail price based on our negotiated revenue-sharing arrangement), adjustments to the actual retail price charged to end users may not be made in a timely manner or at all (even though our wholesale price was reduced). A failure or delay by these carriers in adjusting the retail price for our games, could adversely affect sales volume and our revenues for those games.

 

Carriers and other distributors also control billings and collections for our games, either directly or through third-party service providers. If our carriers or their third-party service providers cause material inaccuracies when providing billing and collection services to us, our revenues may be less than anticipated or may be subject to refund at the discretion of the carrier. This could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

The planned timing and introduction of new original mobile games and games based on licensed intellectual property are subject to risks and uncertainties. Unexpected technical, operational, deployment, distribution or other problems could delay or prevent the introduction of new games, which could result in a loss of, or delay in, revenues or damage to our reputation and brand. If any of our games is introduced with defects, errors or failures, we could experience decreased sales, loss of end users, damage to our carrier relationships and damage to our reputation and brand. Our attractiveness to branded content licensors might also be reduced. In addition, new games may not achieve sufficient market acceptance to offset the costs of development, particularly when the introduction of a game is substantially later than a planned “day-and-date” launch, which could materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

Once developed, a mobile game may be required to be ported to, or converted into separate versions for, more than 1,000 different handset models, many with different technological

requirements. These include handsets with various combinations of underlying technologies, user interfaces, keypad layouts, screen resolutions, sound capabilities and other carrier-specific customizations. If we fail to maintain or enhance our porting capabilities, our sales could suffer, branded content owners might choose not to grant us licenses and carriers might choose to give our games less desirable deck placement or not to give our games placement on their decks at all.

 

Changes to our game design and development processes to address new features or functions of handsets or networks might cause inefficiencies in our porting process or might result in more labor intensive porting processes. In addition, we anticipate that in the future we will be required to port existing and new games to a broader array of handsets. If we utilize more labor intensive porting processes, our margins could be significantly reduced and it might take us longer to port games to an equivalent number of handsets. This, in turn, could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

We rely on independent third-party developers to develop a few of our games, which subjects us to the following risks:

 

 

If our developers terminate their relationships with us or negotiate agreements with terms less favorable to us, we may have to reduce the number of games that we intend to introduce, delay the introduction of some games or increase our internal development staff, which would be a time-consuming and potentially costly process, and, as a result, our business, operating results and financial condition could be harmed.

 

Historically, many video games have been designed to include hidden content and gameplay features that are accessible through the use of in-game cheat codes or other technological means that are intended to enhance the gameplay experience. For example, Super K.O. Boxing includes additional characters and game modes that are available with a code (usually provided to a player after accomplishing a certain level of achievement in the game). These features have been common in console and computer games. However, in several recent cases, hidden content or features have been included in other publishers’ products by an employee who was not authorized to do so or by an outside developer without the knowledge of the publisher. From time to time, some of this hidden content and these hidden features have contained profanity, graphic violence and sexually explicit or otherwise objectionable material. Our design and porting process and the constraints on the file size of our games reduce the possibility of hidden, objectionable content appearing in the games we publish. Nonetheless, these processes and constraints may not prevent this content from being included in our games. If a game we published were found to contain hidden, objectionable content, our wireless carriers and other distributors of our games could refuse to sell it, consumers could refuse to buy it or demand a refund of their money, and, if the game was based on licensed content,

the licensor could demand that we incur significant expense to remove the objectionable content from the game and all ported versions of the game. This could have a materially negative impact on our business, operating results and financial condition. In addition, our reputation could be harmed, which could impact sales of other games we sell and our attractiveness to content licensors and carriers or other distributors of our games. If any of these consequences were to occur, our business, operating results and financial condition could be significantly harmed.

 

Effective internal controls are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and prevent fraud. In addition, Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 will require us to evaluate and report on our internal control over financial reporting and have our independent registered public accounting firm attest to our evaluation beginning with our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2008. We are in the process of preparing and implementing an internal plan of action for compliance with Section 404 and strengthening and testing our system of internal controls to provide the basis for our report. The process of implementing our internal controls and complying with Section 404 will be expensive and time consuming, and will require significant attention of management. We cannot be certain that these measures will ensure that we implement and maintain adequate controls over our financial processes and reporting in the future. Even if we conclude, and our independent registered public accounting firm concurs, that our internal control over financial reporting provides reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect fraud or misstatements. Failure to implement required new or improved controls, or difficulties encountered in their implementation, could harm our operating results or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations. If we or our independent registered public accounting firm discover a material weakness or a significant deficiency in our internal control, the disclosure of that fact, even if quickly remedied, could reduce the market’s confidence in our financial statements and harm our stock price. For example, our auditors have identified a significant deficiency in that we did not have sufficient personnel within our accounting function in the United Kingdom. While we believe we have adequately remediated the deficiency, our remediation may prove inadequate and there can be no assurance that additional deficiencies will not be identified. In addition, a delay in compliance with Section 404 could subject us to a variety of administrative sanctions, including ineligibility for short form resale registration, action by the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, the suspension or delisting of our common stock from The NASDAQ Global Market and the inability of registered broker-dealers to make a market in our common stock, which would further reduce our stock price and could harm our business.

 

Our intellectual property is an essential element of our business. We rely on a combination of copyright, trademark, trade secret and other intellectual property laws and restrictions on disclosure to protect our intellectual property rights. To date, we have not sought patent protection. Consequently, we will not be able to protect our technologies from independent invention by third parties. Despite our efforts to protect our intellectual property rights, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy or otherwise to obtain and use our technology and games. Monitoring unauthorized use of our games is difficult and costly, and we cannot be certain that the steps we have taken will prevent piracy and other unauthorized distribution and use of our technology and games, particularly internationally where the laws may not protect our intellectual property rights as fully as in the United States. In the future, we

may have to resort to litigation to enforce our intellectual property rights, which could result in substantial costs and diversion of our management and resources.

 

In addition, although we require our third-party developers to sign agreements not to disclose or improperly use our trade secrets and acknowledging that all inventions, trade secrets, works of authorship, developments and other processes generated by them on our behalf are our property and to assign to us any ownership they may have in those works, it may still be possible for third parties to obtain and improperly use our intellectual properties without our consent. This could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

Third parties may sue us for intellectual property infringement or initiate proceedings to invalidate our intellectual property, either of which, if successful, could disrupt the conduct of our business, cause us to pay significant damage awards or require us to pay licensing fees. In the event of a successful claim against us, we might be enjoined from using our or our licensed intellectual property, we might incur significant licensing fees and we might be forced to develop alternative technologies. Our failure or inability to develop non-infringing technology or games or to license the infringed or similar technology or games on a timely basis could force us to withdraw games from the market or prevent us from introducing new games. In addition, even if we are able to license the infringed or similar technology or games, license fees could be substantial and the terms of these licenses could be burdensome, which might adversely affect our operating results. We might also incur substantial expenses in defending against third-party infringement claims, regardless of their merit. Successful infringement or licensing claims against us might result in substantial monetary liabilities and might materially disrupt the conduct of our business.

 

In the ordinary course of our business, most of our agreements with carriers and other distributors include indemnification provisions. In these provisions, we agree to indemnify them for losses suffered or incurred in connection with our games, including as a result of intellectual property infringement and damages caused by viruses, worms and other malicious software. The term of these indemnity provisions is generally perpetual after execution of the corresponding license agreement, and the maximum potential amount of future payments we could be required to make under these indemnification provisions is generally unlimited. Large future indemnity payments could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

As of December 31, 2006, our outstanding accounts receivable balances with Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, Vodafone and Cingular Wireless were $3.0 million, $1.5 million, $1.4 million and $1.2 million, respectively. As of December 31, 2005, our outstanding accounts receivable balances with those carriers were $1.7 million, $693,000, $277,000 and $538,000, respectively. Since 49.3% of our outstanding accounts receivable at December 31, 2006 were with Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, Cingular Wireless and Vodafone, we have a concentration of credit risk. If any of these carriers is unable to fulfill its payment obligations to us under our carrier agreements with them, our revenues could decline significantly and our financial condition might be harmed.

 

The operation of our business and our efforts to grow our business further will require significant cash outlays and commitments. If our cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments balances and any cash generated from operations and from this offering are not sufficient to meet our cash requirements, we will need to seek additional capital, potentially through debt or equity financings, to fund our growth. We may not be able to raise needed cash on terms acceptable to us or at all. Financings, if available, may be on terms that are dilutive or potentially dilutive to our stockholders, and the prices at which new investors would be willing to purchase our securities may be lower than the initial public offering price. The holders of new securities may also receive rights, preferences or privileges that are senior to those of existing holders of our common stock. If new sources of financing are required but are insufficient or unavailable, we would be required to modify our growth and operating plans to the extent of available funding, which would harm our ability to grow our business.

 

Although we currently transact approximately three-fifths of our business in U.S. Dollars, we also transact approximately one-third of our business in pounds sterling and Euros and a small portion of our business in other currencies. Conducting business in currencies other than U.S. Dollars subjects us to fluctuations in currency exchange rates that could have a negative impact on our reported operating results. Fluctuations in the value of the U.S. Dollar relative to other currencies impact our revenues, cost of revenues and operating margins and result in foreign currency transaction gains and losses. To date, we have not engaged in exchange rate hedging activities. Even were we to implement hedging strategies to mitigate this risk, these strategies might not eliminate our exposure to foreign exchange rate fluctuations and would involve costs and risks of their own, such as ongoing management time and expertise, external costs to implement the strategies and potential accounting implications.

 

As we operate and sell internationally, we are subject to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or the FCPA, and other laws that prohibit improper payments or offers of payments to foreign governments and their officials and political parties by U.S. and other business entities for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. We have operations, deal with carriers and make sales in countries known to experience corruption, particularly certain emerging countries in East Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, and further international expansion may involve more of these countries. Our activities in these countries create the risk of unauthorized payments or offers of payments by one of our employees, consultants, sales agents or distributors that could be in violation of various laws including the FCPA, even though these parties are not always subject to our control. We have attempted to implement safeguards to discourage these practices by our employees, consultants, sales agents and distributors. However, our existing safeguards and any future improvements may prove to be less than effective, and our employees, consultants, sales agents or distributors may engage in conduct for which we might be held responsible. Violations of the FCPA may result in severe criminal or civil sanctions, and we may be subject to other liabilities, which could negatively affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

We prepare our financial statements to conform with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States. These accounting principles are subject to interpretation by the Financial

Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, the SEC, and various other bodies. A change in those principles could have a significant effect on our reported results and might affect our reporting of transactions completed before a change is announced. For example, we have used stock options as a fundamental component of our employee compensation packages. We believe that stock options directly motivate our employees to maximize long-term stockholder value and, through the use of vesting, encourage employees to remain in our employ. Several regulatory agencies and entities have made regulatory changes that could make it more difficult or expensive for us to grant stock options to employees. For example, the FASB released Statement of Financial Accounting Standards, or SFAS, No. 123R, Share-Based Payment, that required us to record a charge to earnings for employee stock option grants beginning in 2006. In addition, regulations implemented by the NASDAQ Stock Market generally require stockholder approval for all stock option plans, which could make it more difficult for us to grant stock options to employees. We may, as a result of these changes, incur increased compensation costs, change our equity compensation strategy or find it difficult to attract, retain and motivate employees, any of which could materially and adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

 

Wireless network and mobile handset technologies are undergoing rapid innovation. New handsets with more advanced processors and supporting advanced programming languages continue to be introduced. In addition, networks that enable enhanced features, such as multiplayer technology, are being developed and deployed. We have no control over the demand for, or success of, these products or technologies. The development of new, technologically advanced games to match the advancements in handset technology is a complex process requiring significant research and development expense, as well as the accurate anticipation of technological and market trends. If we fail to anticipate and adapt to these and other technological changes, the available channels for our games may be limited and our market share and our operating results may suffer. Our future success will depend on our ability to adapt to rapidly changing technologies, develop mobile games to accommodate evolving industry standards and improve the performance and reliability of our games. In addition, the widespread adoption of networking or telecommunications technologies or other technological changes could require substantial expenditures to modify or adapt our games.

 

Technology changes in our industry require us to anticipate, sometimes years in advance, which technologies we must implement and take advantage of in order to make our games and other mobile entertainment products competitive in the market. Therefore, we usually start our product development with a range of technical development goals that we hope to be able to achieve. We may not be able to achieve these goals, or our competition may be able to achieve them more quickly and effectively than we can. In either case, our products may be technologically inferior to those of our competitors, less appealing to end users or both. If we cannot achieve our technology goals within the original development schedule of our products, then we may delay their release until these technology goals can be achieved, which may delay or reduce our revenues, increase our development expenses and harm our reputation. Alternatively, we may increase the resources employed in research and development in an attempt either to preserve our product launch schedule or to keep up with our competition, which would increase our development expenses. In either case, our business, operating results and financial condition could be materially harmed.

 

To reach large numbers of wireless subscribers, mobile entertainment publishers like us must support numerous mobile handsets and technologies. However, keeping pace with the rapid innovation of handset technologies together with the continuous introduction of new, and often incompatible,

handset models by wireless carriers requires us to make significant investments in research and development, including personnel, technologies and equipment. In the future, we may be required to make substantial investments in our development if the number of different types of handset models continues to proliferate. In addition, as more advanced handsets are introduced that enable more complex, feature rich games, we anticipate that our per-game development costs will increase, which could increase the risks associated with the failure of any one game and could materially harm our operating results and financial condition.

 

We operate in a developing industry. Our success depends on growth in the number of wireless subscribers who use their handsets to access data services and, in particular, entertainment applications of the type we develop and distribute. New or different mobile entertainment applications, such as streaming video or music applications, developed by our current or future competitors may be preferred by subscribers to our games. In addition, other mobile platforms such as the iPod and dedicated portable gaming platforms such as the PlayStation Portable and the Nintendo DS may become widespread, and end users may choose to switch to these platforms. If the market for our games does not continue to grow or we are unable to acquire new end users, our business growth and future revenues could be adversely affected. If end users switch their entertainment spending away from the games and related applications that we publish, or switch to portable gaming platforms or distribution where we do not have comparative strengths, our revenues would likely decline and our business, operating results and financial condition would suffer.

 

Our business is subject to risks that are generally associated with the entertainment industry, many of which are beyond our control. These risks could negatively impact our operating results and include: the popularity, price and timing of release of games and mobile handsets on which they are played; economic conditions that adversely affect discretionary consumer spending; changes in consumer demographics; the availability and popularity of other forms of entertainment; and critical reviews and public tastes and preferences, which may change rapidly and cannot necessarily be predicted.

 

End users of games must have a mobile handset with multimedia capabilities enabled by technologies capable of running third-party games and related applications such as ours. Our development resources are concentrated in the BREW and Java platforms, and we have experience developing games for the i-mode, Mophun, Symbian and Windows Mobile Platforms. If one or more of these technologies fall out of favor with handset manufacturers and wireless carriers and there is a rapid shift to a technology platform such as Adobe Flash Lite or a new technology where we do not have development experience or resources, the development period for our games may be lengthened, increasing our costs, and the resulting games may be of lower quality, and may be published later than anticipated. In such an event, our reputation, business, operating results and financial condition might suffer.

 

Mobile game publishers rely on wireless carriers’ networks to deliver games to end users and on their or other third parties’ billing systems to track and account for the downloading of their games. In

certain circumstances, mobile game publishers may also rely on their own servers to deliver games on demand to end users through their carriers’ networks. In addition, certain subscription-based games such as World Series of Poker and entertainment products such as FOX Sports Mobile require access over the mobile Internet to our servers in order to enable features such as multiplayer modes, high score posting or access to information updates. Any failure of, or technical problem with, carriers’, third parties’ or our billing systems, delivery systems, information systems or communications networks could result in the inability of end users to download our games, prevent the completion of billing for a game, or interfere with access to some aspects of our games or other products. If any of these systems fails or if there is an interruption in the supply of power, an earthquake, fire, flood or other natural disaster, or an act of war or terrorism, end users might be unable to access our games. For example, from time to time, our carriers have experienced failures with their billing and delivery systems and communication networks, including gateway failures that reduced the provisioning capacity of their branded e-commerce system. Any failure of, or technical problem with, the carriers’, other third parties’ or our systems could cause us to lose end users or revenues or incur substantial repair costs and distract management from operating our business. This, in turn, could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

Many new mobile handset models are released in the fourth calendar quarter to coincide with the holiday shopping season. Because many end users download our games soon after they purchase new handsets, we may experience seasonal sales increases based on the holiday selling period. However, due to the time between handset purchases and game purchases, most of this holiday impact occurs for us in our first quarter. In addition, we seek to release many of our games in conjunction with specific events, such as the release of a related movie. If we miss these key selling periods for any reason, our sales will suffer disproportionately. Likewise, if a key event to which our game release schedule is tied were to be delayed or cancelled, our sales would also suffer disproportionately. Further, for a variety of reasons, including roaming charges for data downloads that may make purchase of our games prohibitively expensive for many end users while they are traveling, we may experience seasonal sales decreases during the summer, particularly in Europe. If the level of travel increases or expands to other periods, our operating results and financial condition may be harmed. Our ability to meet game development schedules is affected by a number of factors, including the creative processes involved, the coordination of large and sometimes geographically dispersed development teams required by the increasing complexity of our games, and the need to fine-tune our games prior to their release. Any failure to meet anticipated development or release schedules would likely result in a delay of revenues or possibly a significant shortfall in our revenues and cause our operating results to be materially different than anticipated.

 

Our success will depend on the continued growth and maintenance of wireless communications infrastructure in the United States and internationally. This includes deployment and maintenance of reliable next-generation digital networks with the speed, data capacity and security necessary to provide reliable wireless communications services. Wireless communications infrastructure may be unable to support the demands placed on it if the number of subscribers continues to increase, or if existing or future subscribers increase their bandwidth requirements. Wireless communications have experienced a variety of outages and other delays as a result of infrastructure and equipment failures, and could face outages and delays in the future. These outages and delays could reduce the level of wireless communications usage as well as our ability to distribute our games successfully. In addition, changes by a wireless carrier to network infrastructure may interfere with downloads of our games and may cause end users to lose functionality in our games that they have already downloaded. This could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

Substantially all our games are currently sold through carriers’ branded e-commerce services. We have invested significant resources developing this sales channel. However, a growing number of handset models currently available allow wireless subscribers to browse the Internet and, in some cases, download applications from sources other than a carrier’s branded e-commerce service. In addition, the development of other application delivery mechanisms such as premium-SMS may enable subscribers to download applications without having to access a carrier’s branded e-commerce service. Increased use by subscribers of open operating system handsets or premium-SMS delivery systems will enable them to bypass carriers’ branded e-commerce services and could reduce the market power of carriers. This could force us to rely further on alternative sales channels where we may not be successful selling our games, and could require us to increase our sales and marketing expenses significantly. As with our carriers, we believe that inferior placement of our games and other mobile entertainment products in the menus of off-deck distributors will result in lower revenues than might otherwise be anticipated from these alternative sales channels. We may be unable to develop and promote our direct website distribution sufficiently to overcome the limitations and disadvantages of off-deck distribution channels. This could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

Maintaining the security of mobile handsets and wireless networks is critical for our business. There are individuals and groups who develop and deploy viruses, worms and other illicit code or malicious software programs that may attack wireless networks and handsets. Security experts have identified computer “worm” programs, such as “Cabir” and “Commwarrior.A,” and viruses, such as “Lasco.A,” that target handsets running on the Symbian operating system. Although these worms have not been widely released and do not present an immediate risk to our business, we believe future threats could lead some end users to seek to return our games, reduce or delay future purchases of our games or reduce or delay the use of their handsets. Wireless carriers and handset manufacturers may also increase their expenditures on protecting their wireless networks and mobile phone products from attack, which could delay adoption of new handset models. Any of these activities could adversely affect our revenues and this could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

Subscriptions represent a significant portion of our revenues. As handset development continues, over time an increasing percentage of end users who already own one or more of our subscription games will likely upgrade from their existing handsets. With some wireless carriers, it is not currently feasible for these end users to transfer their existing subscriptions from one handset to another. In addition, carriers may switch to subscription billing systems that require end users to actively renew, or opt-in, each month from current systems that passively renew unless end users take some action to opt-out of their subscriptions. In either case, unless we are able to re-sell subscriptions to these end users or replace these end users with other end users, our sales would suffer and this could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

It is possible that a number of laws and regulations may be adopted in the United States and elsewhere that could restrict the media and wireless communications industries, including laws and regulations regarding customer privacy, taxation, content suitability, copyright, distribution and antitrust. Furthermore, the growth and development of the market for electronic commerce may prompt calls for more stringent consumer protection laws that may impose additional burdens on companies such as ours conducting business through wireless carriers. We anticipate that regulation of our industry will increase and that we will be required to devote legal and other resources to address this regulation. Changes in current laws or regulations or the imposition of new laws and regulations in the United States or elsewhere regarding the media and wireless communications industries may lessen the growth of wireless communications services and may materially reduce our ability to increase or maintain sales of our games.

 

A number of studies have examined the health effects of mobile phone use, and the results of some of the studies have been interpreted as evidence that mobile phone use causes adverse health effects. The establishment of a link between the use of mobile phone services and health problems, or any media reports suggesting such a link, could increase government regulation of, and reduce demand for, mobile phones and, accordingly, the demand for our games and related applications, and this could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

 

There has been no public market for our common stock prior to this offering. The initial public offering price for our common stock was determined through negotiations among the underwriters, the selling stockholders and us. This initial public offering price may vary from the market price of our common stock following this offering. If you purchase shares of our common stock in this offering, you may not be able to resell those shares at or above the initial public offering price. An active or liquid market in our common stock may not develop upon completion of this offering or, if it does develop, it may not be sustainable. The market price of our common stock may fluctuate significantly in response to numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, including:

 

 

 

In addition, the stock markets, and in particular The NASDAQ Global Market on which our common stock will be listed, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected and continue to affect the market prices of equity securities of many technology companies. Stock prices of many technology companies have fluctuated in a manner unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. In the past, stockholders have instituted securities class action litigation following periods of market volatility. If we were to become involved in securities litigation, it could have substantial costs, divert resources and the attention of management from our business and adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

As a public company, we will be subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and the rules and regulations of the NASDAQ Stock Market. The requirements of these rules and regulations will increase our legal, accounting and financial compliance costs, will make some activities more difficult, time-consuming and costly and may also place undue strain on our personnel, systems and resources.

 

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. This can be difficult to do. For example, we depend on the reports of wireless carriers for information regarding the amount of sales of our games and related applications and to determine the amount of royalties we owe branded content licensors and the amount of our revenues. These reports may not be timely, and in the past they have contained, and in the future they may contain, errors.

 

In order to maintain and improve the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting, we will need to expend significant resources and provide significant management oversight. We have a substantial effort ahead of us to implement appropriate processes, document our system of internal control over relevant processes, assess their design, remediate any deficiencies identified and test their operation. As a result, management’s attention may be diverted from other business concerns, which could harm our business, operating results and financial condition. These efforts will also involve substantial accounting-related costs. In addition, if we are unable to continue to meet these requirements, we may not be able to remain listed on The NASDAQ Global Market.

 

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the rules and regulations of the NASDAQ Stock Market will make it more difficult and more expensive for us to maintain directors’ and officers’ liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced coverage or incur substantially higher costs to maintain coverage. If we are unable to maintain adequate directors’ and officers’ insurance, our ability to recruit and retain qualified directors, especially those directors who may be considered independent for purposes of the NASDAQ Stock Market rules, and officers will be significantly curtailed.

 

If you purchase shares of our common stock in this offering, the book value of your shares will immediately be $8.53 less than the price you paid. This effect is known as dilution. If previously granted options or warrants are exercised, additional dilution will occur. As of December 31, 2006, options to purchase 2,881,905 shares of our common stock with a weighted average exercise price of approximately $5.03 per share were outstanding. Subsequent to December 31, 2006, we granted additional options to purchase an aggregate of 464,607 shares of our common stock at a weighted average exercise price of $11.28 per share. In addition, as of the date of this prospectus, warrants to purchase an aggregate of 501,277 shares of our common stock with a weighted average exercise price of $2.39 were outstanding. Exercise of these options and warrants will result in additional dilution to purchasers of our common stock in this offering.

 

The price of our common stock could decline if there are substantial sales of our common stock or if there is a large number of shares of our common stock available for sale. After this offering, we will have outstanding 28,437,885 shares of our common stock based on the number of shares outstanding as of December 31, 2006 and assuming no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares of our common stock in this offering. This includes the shares that we are selling in this offering, which may be resold in the public market immediately. The remaining 21,137,885 shares, or 74.3% of our outstanding shares after this offering, are currently restricted as a result of market standoff and/or lock-up agreements but will be able to be sold in the near future as set forth below.

 

 

After this offering, the holders of an aggregate of 16,264,624 shares of our common stock or subject to warrants outstanding as of February 28, 2007 will have rights, subject to some conditions, to require us to file registration statements covering their shares or to include their shares in registration statements that we may file for ourselves or our stockholders. We also intend to register all of our shares of common stock that we have issued and may issue under our employee equity incentive plans. Once we register these shares, they will be able to be sold freely in the public market upon issuance, subject to existing market standoff and/or lock-up agreements.

 

The market price of the shares of our common stock could decline as a result of sales of a substantial number of our shares in the public market or the perception in the market that the holders of a large number of shares intend to sell their shares.

 

After this offering, our directors, executive officers and holders of more than 5% of our common stock, together with their affiliates, will beneficially own, in the aggregate, approximately 55.2% of our outstanding common stock, assuming no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares of our common stock in this offering. As a result, these stockholders, acting together, would have the ability to control the outcome of matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including

the election of directors and any merger, consolidation or sale of all or substantially all of our assets. In addition, these stockholders, acting together, would have the ability to control the management and affairs of our company. Accordingly, this concentration of ownership might harm the market price of our common stock by:

 

 

BAVP, L.P., which owns approximately 11.4% of our common stock as of December 31, 2006 (calculated without giving effect to this offering, based on the number of shares of our common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2006, assuming the conversion of all outstanding shares of our preferred stock), is affiliated with Banc of America Securities, LLC, an underwriter in this offering. See “Principal and Selling Stockholders” and “Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions” for a more complete description of BAVP, L.P.’s ownership of our capital stock. In addition, Sharon Wienbar, one of our directors, is a former employee of Bank of America, National Association, an affiliate of Banc of America Securities LLC. These relationships present a conflict of interest because, due to the interests of its affiliate in this offering as a greater than 10% stockholder, Banc of America Securities LLC has an interest in the successful completion of this offering beyond its interest as an underwriter in this offering. Accordingly, this offering will be made in compliance with the applicable provisions of Rule 2720 of the Conduct Rules of the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc., which are intended to address potential conflicts of interest involving underwriters. Rule 2720 requires that the initial public offering price can be no higher than that recommended by a “qualified independent underwriter,” as defined by the NASD. Goldman, Sachs & Co. has served in that capacity and will receive $10,000 from us as compensation for that role. Although the qualified independent underwriter has performed due diligence investigations and reviewed and participated in the preparation of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part, conflicts may arise with respect to the offering, and, if conflicts do arise, they may be resolved in a manner adverse to us and to purchasers of our common stock in this offering.

 

We cannot specify with any certainty the particular uses of the net proceeds that we will receive from this offering other than the use of $10.9 million to repay in full the principal and accrued interest on our outstanding loan from Pinnacle Ventures. Our management will have broad discretion in the application of the net proceeds, including working capital, possible acquisitions and other general corporate purposes. Our stockholders may not agree with the manner in which our management chooses to allocate and spend the net proceeds. The failure by our management to apply these funds effectively could harm our business and financial condition. Pending their use, we may invest the net proceeds from this offering in a manner that does not produce income or that loses value.

 

The trading market for our common stock will depend in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. We do not currently have and may never obtain research coverage by securities and industry analysts. If no securities or industry analysts commence coverage of our company, the trading price for our stock would be negatively impacted. In the event we obtain securities or industry analyst coverage, if one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our stock or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business,

our stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our stock could decrease, which might cause our stock price and trading volume to decline.

 

The terms of a number of our agreements with branded content owners and wireless carriers effectively provide that, if we undergo a change of control, the applicable content owner or carrier will be entitled to terminate the relevant agreement. In addition, our restated certificate of incorporation and restated bylaws that will become effective immediately following the completion of this offering will contain provisions that may make the acquisition of our company more difficult without the approval of our board of directors, including the following:

 

 

These provisions and other provisions in our charter documents could discourage, delay or prevent a transaction involving a change in our control. Any delay or prevention of a change of control transaction could cause stockholders to lose a substantial premium over the then-current market price of their shares. These provisions could also discourage proxy contests and could make it more difficult for you and other stockholders to elect directors of your choosing or to cause us to take other corporate actions you desire.

 

In addition, we are subject to Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which, subject to some exceptions, prohibits “business combinations” between a Delaware corporation and an “interested stockholder,” which is generally defined as a stockholder who becomes a beneficial owner of 15% or more of a Delaware corporation’s voting stock, for a three-year period following the date that the stockholder became an interested stockholder. Section 203 could have the effect of delaying, deferring or preventing a change in control that our stockholders might consider to be in their best interests.

 

In addition to historical information, this prospectus contains forward-looking statements. We may, in some cases, use words, such as “project,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “plan,” “expect,” “estimate,” “intend,” “continue,” “should,” “would,” “could,” “potentially,” “will” or “may,” or other similar words and expressions that convey uncertainty about future events or outcomes to identify these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this prospectus include statements about:

 

 

The outcome of the events described in these forward-looking statements is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results anticipated by these forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and factors include those we discuss in this prospectus under the caption “Risk Factors.” You should read these risk factors and the other cautionary statements made in this prospectus as being applicable to all related forward-looking statements wherever they appear in this prospectus.

 

The forward-looking statements made in this prospectus relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. We undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

 

This prospectus also contains statistical data that we obtained from industry publications and reports. These industry publications generally indicate that they have obtained their information from sources believed to be reliable, but do not guarantee the accuracy and completeness of their information. Although we have not independently verified the data contained in these industry publications and reports, based on our industry experience we believe that the publications are reliable and the conclusions contained in the publications and reports are reasonable.

 

We estimate that we will receive net proceeds from the sale of the 7,300,000 shares of common stock that we are selling in this offering of approximately $75.1 million, based on an initial public offering price of $11.50 per share, after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses. To the extent that the underwriters sell more than 7,300,000 shares of common stock, the underwriters have the option to purchase up to an additional 1,095,000 shares from us and certain selling stockholders, which include our chief executive officer, other members of senior management and an affiliate of a director, at the initial public offering price less the underwriting discount. If the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares in this offering is exercised in full, we estimate that our net proceeds will be approximately $75.1 million. We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling stockholders pursuant to the exercise of the underwriters’ option, if it is exercised. See “Principal and Selling Stockholders” and “Underwriting.”

 

The principal purposes of this offering are to obtain additional capital, to create a public market for our common stock and to facilitate our future access to the public equity markets. We intend to use approximately $10.9 million of the net proceeds of this offering to repay in full the principal and accrued interest on our outstanding loan from Pinnacle Ventures, based on amounts accrued as of December 31, 2006. The loan has an interest rate of 11% and has a maturity date of June 2009. We used the net proceeds of this loan for working capital and general corporate purposes. We expect to use the remaining net proceeds of this offering for general corporate purposes, including:

 

 

We may also use a portion of the net proceeds for the acquisition of, or investment in, companies, technologies, products or assets that complement our business. However, we have no present understandings, commitments or agreements to enter into any acquisitions or make any investments.

 

We have not yet determined our anticipated expenditures and therefore cannot estimate the amounts to be used for each of the purposes discussed above. The amounts and timing of any expenditures will vary depending on the amount of cash generated by our operations, competitive and technological developments and the rate of growth, if any, of our business. Accordingly, our management will have significant flexibility in applying the net proceeds from this offering, and investors will be relying on the judgment of our management regarding the application of these net proceeds. Pending the uses described above, we intend to invest the net proceeds from this offering in short-term, interest-bearing, investment-grade securities. The goal with respect to the investment of these net proceeds will be capital preservation and liquidity so that these funds are readily available to fund our operations.

 

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our capital stock, and we do not currently intend to pay any cash dividends on our common stock for the foreseeable future. We expect to retain future earnings, if any, to fund the development and growth of our business. Any future determination to pay dividends on our common stock will be at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend upon, among other factors, our financial condition, operating results, current and anticipated cash needs, plans for expansion and other factors that our board of directors may deem relevant. Our existing loan agreement with Pinnacle Ventures prohibits payment of dividends prior to the effective date of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part.

 

The following table sets forth our capitalization as of December 31, 2006:

 

 

You should read this table together with our consolidated financial statements and related notes and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” included elsewhere in this prospectus.

 

 

 

 

In the table above, the number of shares outstanding as of December 31, 2006 does not include:

 

 

If you invest in our common stock in this offering, your interest will be diluted to the extent of the difference between the initial public offering price of our common stock and the pro forma net tangible book value of our common stock after this offering. As of December 31, 2006, our pro forma net tangible book value was approximately $9.5 million, or $0.45 per share, based upon 21,137,885 shares outstanding as of this date. Pro forma net tangible book value per share represents the amount of our total tangible assets less our total liabilities, divided by the number of outstanding shares of our common stock, after giving effect to the automatic conversion of all outstanding shares of our preferred stock into shares of our common stock and the reclassification of our preferred stock warrant liability to additional paid-in capital upon the conversion of warrants to purchase shares of our convertible preferred stock into warrants to purchase shares of our common stock upon the completion of this offering.

 

After giving effect to the sale by us of the 7,300,000 shares of common stock offered by us in this offering at an initial public offering price of $11.50 per share, after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and the estimated offering expenses, our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value as of December 31, 2006 would have been approximately $84.5 million, or $2.97 per share. This represents an immediate increase in pro forma net tangible book value of $2.52 per share to existing stockholders and an immediate dilution of $8.53 per share to new investors purchasing shares at the initial public offering price. The following table illustrates this per share dilution:

 

 

If the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase additional shares of our common stock in this offering, the pro forma net tangible book value per share after giving effect to this offering would be $2.97 per share, and the dilution in pro forma net tangible book value per share to investors in this offering would be $8.53 per share.

 

The following table summarizes on the pro forma as adjusted basis described above, the difference between our existing stockholders and the purchasers of shares of our common stock in this offering with respect to the number of shares of common stock purchased from us, the total consideration paid to us and the average price paid per share paid to us, based on an initial public offering price of $11.50 per share, before deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions:

 

 

The above discussion and tables assume no exercise of our stock options or warrants outstanding as of December 31, 2006, consisting of 2,881,905 shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of stock options with a weighted average exercise price of approximately $5.03 per share and 229,073 shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of warrants with a weighted average exercise price of approximately $5.22 per share. If all of these options and warrants were exercised, then:

 

 

 

 

 

You should read the following discussion and analysis in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus. This discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including those set forth under “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this prospectus.

 

Glu Mobile is a leading global publisher of mobile games. We have developed and published a portfolio of more than 100 casual and traditional games to appeal to a broad cross section of the over one billion subscribers served by our more than 150 wireless carriers and other distributors. We create games and related applications based on third-party licensed brands and other intellectual property, as well as on our own original brands and intellectual property. Our games based on licensed intellectual property include Deer Hunter, Diner Dash, Monopoly, Sonic the Hedgehog, World Series of Poker and Zuma. Our original games based on our own intellectual property include Alpha Wing, Ancient Empires, Blackjack Hustler, Brain Genius, Stranded and Super K.O. Boxing.

 

We seek to attract end users by developing engaging content that is designed specifically to take advantage of the portability and networked nature of mobile handsets. We leverage the marketing resources and distribution infrastructures of wireless carriers and the brands and other intellectual property of third-party content owners, which allows us to focus our efforts on developing and publishing high-quality mobile games.

 

We believe that improving quality and greater availability of mobile games are increasing end-user awareness of and demand for mobile games. At the same time, carriers and branded content owners are focusing on a small group of publishers that have the ability to produce high-quality mobile games consistently and port them rapidly and cost effectively to a wide variety of handsets. Additionally, branded content owners are seeking publishers that have the ability to distribute games globally through relationships with most or all of the major carriers. We believe we have created the requisite development and porting technology and have achieved the requisite scale to be in this group. We also believe that leveraging our carrier and content owner relationships will allow us to grow our revenues without corresponding percentage growth in our infrastructure and operating costs.

 

Our revenue growth rate will depend significantly on continued growth in the mobile game market and our ability to continue to attract new end users in that market. Our ability to attain profitability will be affected by the extent to which we must incur additional expenses to expand our sales, marketing, development, and general and administrative capabilities to grow our business. The largest component of our expenses is personnel costs. Personnel costs consist of salaries, benefits and incentive compensation, including bonuses and stock-based compensation, for our employees. Our operating expenses will continue to grow in absolute dollars, assuming our revenues continue to grow. As a percentage of revenues, we expect these expenses to decrease.

 

We were incorporated in May 2001 and introduced our first mobile games to the market in July 2002. In December 2004 and in March 2006, we acquired Macrospace and iFone, respectively, each a mobile game developer and publisher based in the United Kingdom. In the third quarter of 2005, we opened a Hong Kong office; in the third quarter of 2006, we opened an office in France; and, in the fourth quarter of 2006, we opened additional offices in Brazil and Germany.

 

We acquired Macrospace in order to continue to develop and secure direct distribution relationships with the leading wireless carriers, to deepen and broaden our game library, to acquire access and rights to leading licenses and franchises (including original intellectual property) and to augment our internal production and publishing resources. We acquired iFone in order to continue to deepen and broaden our game library, to acquire access and rights to leading licenses and franchises and to

augment our external production resources. These acquisitions were part of our strategy of expanding into Europe to address the desire of wireless carriers to work with publishers that have large and diverse portfolios of high-quality games based on well-known brands and of branded content owners to work with publishers that have global distribution capabilities. These acquisitions:

 

 

We believe that these acquisitions, together with our internal growth, have significantly enhanced our attractiveness to wireless carriers and branded content owners, allowing us to pursue our ongoing strategy.

 

We generate the vast majority of our revenues from wireless carriers that market and distribute our games. These carriers generally charge a one-time purchase fee or a monthly subscription fee on their subscribers’ phone bills when the subscribers download our games to their mobile phones. The carriers perform the billing and collection functions and generally remit to us a contractual fee or a contractual percentage of their collected fee for each game. We recognize as revenues the percentage of the fees due to us from the carrier (see “— Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates — Revenue Recognition” below). End users may also initiate the purchase of our games through various Internet portal sites or through other delivery mechanisms, with carriers generally continuing to be responsible for billing, collecting and remitting to us a portion of their fees. To date, eliminating the impact of our acquisitions, our domestic revenues have grown more rapidly than our international revenues, and this trend may continue.

 

Our cost of revenues consists primarily of royalties that we pay to content owners from which we license brands and other intellectual property and, to a limited extent, to certain external developers. Our cost of revenues also includes noncash expenses — amortization of certain acquired intangible assets, any impairment of those intangible assets, and any impairment of prepaid royalties and guarantees. We record advance royalty payments made to content licensors as prepaid royalties on our balance sheet when payment is made to the licensor. We recognize royalties in cost of revenues based upon the revenues derived from the relevant game multiplied by the applicable royalty rate. If our licensors earn royalties in excess of their advance royalties, we also recognize these excess royalties as cost of revenues in the period they are earned by the licensor. If applicable, we will record an impairment of prepaid royalties or accrue for future guaranteed royalties that are in excess of anticipated demand or net realizable value. At each balance sheet date, we perform a detailed review of prepaid royalties and guarantees that considers multiple factors, including forecasted demand, game life cycle status, game development plans, and current and anticipated sales levels.

We pay some of our external developers, especially in Europe, royalties in addition to payments for game development costs. We recognize these royalties as cost of revenues in the period the developer earns the royalties based upon the revenues derived from the relevant game multiplied by the applicable royalty rate. We expense the costs for development of our games prior to technological feasibility as we incur them throughout the development process, and we include these costs in research and development expenses (see “— Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates — Software Development Costs” below). To date, royalties paid to developers have not been significant, but we expect them to increase in aggregate amount based on our existing contracts with developers.

 

Absent further impairments of existing intangible assets, we expect amortization of intangible assets included in cost of revenues to be $2.1 million in 2007, $883,000 in 2008, $526,000 in 2009, $354,000 in 2010 and $84,000 in 2011. These amounts would likely increase if we make future acquisitions.

 

Our gross margin is determined principally by the mix of games that we license. Our games based on licensed intellectual property require us to pay royalties to the licensor and the royalty rates in our licenses vary significantly; our original Glu-branded games, which are based on our own intellectual property, require no royalty payments to licensors. There are multiple internal and external factors that affect the mix of revenues from licensed games and Glu-branded games, including the overall number of licensed games and Glu-branded games available for sale during a particular period, the extent of our and our carriers’ marketing efforts for each game, and the deck placement of each game on our carriers’ mobile handsets. We believe the success of any individual game during a particular period is affected by its quality and third-party ratings, its marketing and media exposure, its consumer recognizability, its overall acceptance by end users and the availability of competitive games. If our product mix shifts more to licensed games or games with higher royalty rates, our gross margin would decline. Our gross margin is also adversely affected by ongoing amortization of acquired intangible assets, such as licensed content, games, trademarks and carrier contracts, that are directly related to revenue-generating activities and by periodic charges for impairment of these assets and of prepaid royalties and guarantees. These charges can cause gross margin variations, particularly from quarter to quarter.

 

Our operating expenses primarily include research and development expenses, sales and marketing expenses and general and administrative expenses. They have in the past also included amortization of acquired intangible assets not directly related to revenue-generating activities and, in one period, a restructuring charge and a charge for acquired in-process research and development.

 

Research and Development.  Our research and development expenses consist primarily of salaries and benefits for employees working on creating, developing, porting, quality assurance, carrier certification and deployment of our games, on technologies related to interoperating with our various wireless carriers and on our internal platforms, payments to third parties for developing and porting of our games, and allocated facilities costs.

 

We devote substantial resources to the development, porting and quality assurance of our games and expect this to continue in the future. We believe that developing games internally through our own development studios allows us to increase operating margins, leverage the technology we have developed and better control game delivery. During 2006, as a result of our acquisition of iFone, we substantially increased our use of external development resources, but we currently do not expect further significant increases in expenses for external development. Our games generally require six months to one year to produce, based on the complexity and feature set of the game developed, the number of carrier wireless platforms and mobile handsets covered, and the experience of the internal or external developer. We expect our research and development expenses will increase in absolute

terms as we continue to create new games and technologies, but that these expenses will continue to decline as a percentage of revenues.

 

Sales and Marketing.  Our sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of salaries, benefits and incentive compensation for sales and marketing personnel, expenses for advertising, trade shows, public relations and other promotional and marketing activities, expenses for general business development activities, travel and entertainment expenses and allocated facilities costs. We expect sales and marketing expenses to increase in absolute terms with the growth of our business and as we further promote our games and the Glu brand. Although we expect our variable marketing expenses to increase at least as rapidly as our revenues, we expect that our sales and marketing headcount will not increase as rapidly as revenues and that therefore sales and marketing expenses will continue to decrease as a percentage of revenues.

 

General and Administrative.  Our general and administrative expenses consist primarily of salaries and benefits for general and administrative personnel, consulting fees, legal, accounting and other professional fees, information technology costs and allocated facilities costs. We expect that general and administrative expenses will increase in absolute terms as we hire additional personnel and incur costs related to the anticipated growth of our business and our operation as a public company. We also expect that these expenses will increase because of the additional costs to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and related regulation, our efforts to expand our international operations and, in the near term, additional accounting costs related to the public offering of our common stock. However, we expect these expenses to continue to decrease as a percentage of revenues.

 

Based on our current revenue and expense projections, we expect that our various operating expense categories will decline as a percentage of revenues. We could fail to increase our revenues as anticipated, and we could decide to increase expenses in one or more categories to respond to competitive pressures or for other reasons. In these cases and others, it is possible that one or more of our operating expense categories would not decline as a percentage of revenues.

 

Amortization of Intangible Assets.  We record amortization of acquired intangible assets that are directly related to revenue-generating activities as part of our cost of revenues and amortization of the remaining acquired intangible assets, such as noncompetition agreements, as part of our operating expenses. We record intangible assets on our balance sheet based upon their fair value at the time they are acquired. We determine the fair value of the intangible assets using a discounted cash flows approach. We amortize the amortizable intangible assets using the straight-line method over their estimated useful lives of two to six years. Absent impairments of existing intangible assets, we expect amortization of existing intangible assets to be $266,000 in 2007, $267,000 in 2008, $267,000 in 2009 and $255,000 in 2010. These amounts would likely increase if we make future acquisitions.

 

Restructuring Charge.  In 2005, we undertook restructuring activities to reduce our ongoing operating expenses. The resulting restructuring charge principally consisted of costs associated with employee termination benefits. We recorded these costs as an operating expense when we communicated the benefit arrangement to the employee and no significant future services, other than a minimum retention period, were required of the employee in order to earn the termination benefits.

 

Acquired In-Process Research and Development.  We classify all development projects acquired in business combinations as acquired in-process research and development, or IPR&D, if the feasibility of the acquired technology has not been established and no future alternative uses exist. We expense the fair value of IPR&D at the time it is acquired. We determine the fair value of the IPR&D using a discounted cash flows approach. In estimating the appropriate discount rate, we consider, among other things, the risks to developing technology given changes in trends and technology in our industry. In 2006, we expensed the fair value of IPR&D acquired in the iFone transaction.

 

Interest and other income (expense), net, includes interest income, interest expense, accretion of the debt discount related to the warrants issued to Pinnacle Ventures in conjunction with its March 2006 loan to us, changes in our preferred stock warrant liability and foreign currency transaction gains and losses. Following the completion of this offering when our outstanding warrants to purchase redeemable convertible preferred stock convert into warrants to purchase common stock, we will no longer be required to record changes in our preferred stock warrant liability under Staff Position No. 150-5, Issuer’s Accounting under FASB Statement No. 150 for Freestanding Warrants and Other Similar Instruments on Shares That Are Redeemable, or FSP 150-5, or accretion in the debt discount related to the Pinnacle Ventures warrants. Following this offering, we will have additional cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of approximately $75.1 million resulting from the net proceeds of this offering at an initial public offering price of $11.50 per share and after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses. This will likely cause a substantial increase in our interest income.

 

We are subject to tax in the United States as well as other tax jurisdictions or countries in which we conduct business. Earnings from our non-U.S. activities are subject to local country income tax and may be subject to current United States income tax depending on whether these earnings are subject to U.S. income tax based upon U.S. anti-deferral rules, such as Subpart F of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code. In addition, some revenues generated outside of the United States and the United Kingdom may be subject to withholding taxes. In some cases, these withholding taxes may be deductible on a current basis or may be available as a credit to offset future income taxes depending on a variety of factors.

 

We record a valuation allowance to reduce any deferred tax asset to the amount that is more likely than not to be realized. We consider historical levels of income, expectations and risks associated with estimates of future taxable income and ongoing prudent and feasible tax planning strategies in assessing the need for a valuation allowance. If we were to determine that we would be able to realize deferred tax assets in the future in excess of the net recorded amount, we would record an adjustment to the deferred tax asset valuation allowance. Such an adjustment would increase our income in the period the determination is made. Historically, we have incurred operating losses and have generated significant net operating loss carryforwards. At December 31, 2006, we had net operating loss carryforwards of approximately $28.5 million and $28.7 million for federal and state tax purposes, respectively. These carryforwards will expire from 2011 to 2026. Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards to offset any future taxable income may be subject to restrictions attributable to equity transactions that result in changes of ownership as defined by section 382 of the Code.

 

As of December 31, 2005, the federal research and development credit expired. In late December 2006, Congress passed legislation that reinstated the federal credit retroactively to January 1, 2006. As a result, we recognized an additional credit in the fourth quarter of 2006.

 

Beginning on January 1, 2007, we will be accounting for uncertainty in income taxes in accordance with FASB Interpretation No. 48, Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes — an Interpretation of FASB Statement No. 109. As of December 31, 2006, we had not determined what the cumulative impact of adopting this change in accounting method will be.

 

On June 29, 2005, the FASB issued FSP 150-5. FSP 150-5 affirms that freestanding warrants to purchase shares that are redeemable are subject to the requirements in SFAS No. 150, regardless of the redemption price or the timing of the redemption feature. Therefore, under SFAS No. 150, the outstanding freestanding warrants to purchase our convertible preferred stock are liabilities that must

be recorded at fair value each quarter, with the changes in estimated fair value in the quarter recorded as other expense or income in our statement of operations.

 

We adopted FSP 150-5 as of July 1, 2005 and recorded an expense of $315,000 for the cumulative effect of the change in accounting principle to reflect the estimated fair value of these warrants as of that date. We recorded income of $85,000 and expense of $1.0 million in other income (expense), net, for the remainder of 2005 and in 2006, respectively, to reflect further increases or decreases in the estimated fair value of the warrants. The pro forma effect of the adoption of FSP 150-5 on our results of operations for 2004 and 2005, if applied retroactively as if SFAS No. 150 had been adopted in those years, was not material. We estimated the fair value of these warrants at the respective balance sheet dates using the Black-Scholes option valuation model. This model utilizes as inputs the estimated fair value of the underlying convertible preferred stock at the valuation measurement date, the remaining contractual term of the warrant, risk-free interest rates, expected dividends and expected volatility of the price of the underlying convertible preferred stock.

 

Our management considered the capital structure analysis utilized in the common stock valuations prepared by Duff & Phelps, LLC, an independent valuation firm, as of September 30, 2005, December 31, 2005, March 31, 2006, June 30, 2006, September 7, 2006 and December 31, 2006 in determining the preferred stock value.

 

Our Series A, B, C, D and D-1 mandatorily redeemable convertible preferred stock has a mandatory redemption provision. In each quarterly and annual period, we accrete the amount that is necessary to adjust the recorded balance of this preferred stock to an amount equal to its estimated redemption value at its redemption date using the effective interest method. The redemption value is the par value of the preferred stock plus any dividends declared and unpaid. Each share of our outstanding preferred stock will automatically convert to common stock if this offering is completed, results in proceeds of at least $50 million and has an offering price in excess of $13.50 per share, and we will cease accreting upon this conversion. In February 2007, the requisite holders of our preferred stock agreed to convert all shares of our preferred stock to common stock upon completion of this offering as long as the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part for this offering is effective on or prior to March 31, 2007. In connection with this agreement, we issued warrants to purchase an aggregate of 272,204 shares of common stock at an exercise price of $0.0003 per share for a period of 30 days following completion of this offering, provided that the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part is effective on or prior to March 31, 2007. We will record a deemed dividend related to these warrants in the three months ending March 31, 2007 as a charge to net loss attributable to common stockholders. The amount of the deemed dividend will be based on the estimated fair value of the warrants using the Black-Scholes option valuation model and will also take into consideration the contingency, as of the date of issuance, of not completing this offering by March 31, 2007. As a result, we expect that the amount of the deemed dividend will be lower than the estimated fair value of similar warrants without this contingency.

 

Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with United States generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP. These accounting principles require us to make certain estimates and judgments that can affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities as of the dates of the consolidated financial statements, the disclosure of contingencies as of the dates of the consolidated financial statements, and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the periods presented. Although we believe that our estimates and judgments are reasonable under the circumstances existing at the time these estimates and judgments are made, actual results may differ from those estimates, which could affect our consolidated financial statements.

We believe the following to be critical accounting policies because they are important to the portrayal of our financial condition or results of operations and they require critical management estimates and judgments about matters that are uncertain:

 

 

We derive our revenues primarily by licensing software products in the form of mobile games. License arrangements with our end users can be on a perpetual or subscription basis. A perpetual license gives an end user the right to use the licensed game on the registered mobile handset on a perpetual basis. A subscription license gives an end user the right to use the licensed game on the registered handset for a limited period of time, ranging from a few days to as long as one month. We distribute our products primarily through wireless carriers, which market our games to end users. Carriers usually bill license fees for perpetual and subscription licenses upon download of the game software by the end user. In the case of subscription licenses, many subscriber agreements provide for automatic renewal until the subscriber opts-out, while the others provide for opt-in renewal. In either case, subsequent billings for subscription licenses are generally billed monthly. We apply the provisions of Statement of Position 97-2, Software Revenue Recognition, as amended by Statement of Position 98-9, Modification of SOP 97-2, Software Revenue Recognition, With Respect to Certain Transactions, to all transactions.

 

We recognize revenues from our games when persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists, the game has been delivered, the fee is fixed or determinable, and the collection of the resulting receivable is probable. For both perpetual and subscription licenses, we consider a signed license agreement to be evidence of an arrangement with a carrier and a “clickwrap” agreement to be evidence of an arrangement with an end user. For these licenses, we define delivery as the download of the game by the end user.

 

We estimate revenues from carriers in the current period when reasonable estimates of these amounts can be made. Several carriers provide reliable interim preliminary reporting and others report sales data within a reasonable time frame following the end of each month, both of which allow us to make reasonable estimates of revenues and therefore to recognize revenues during the reporting period when the end user licenses the game. Determination of the appropriate amount of revenue recognized involves judgments and estimates that we believe are reasonable, but it is possible that actual results may differ from our estimates. Our estimates for revenues include consideration of factors such as preliminary sales data, carrier-specific historical sales trends, the age of games and the expected impact of newly launched games, successful introduction of new handsets, promotions during the period and economic trends. When we receive the final carrier reports, to the extent not received within a reasonable time frame following the end of each month, we record any differences between estimated revenues and actual revenues in the reporting period when we determine the actual amounts. Historically, the revenues on the final revenue report have not differed by more than one-half of 1% of the reported revenues for the period, which we deemed to be immaterial. Revenues earned from certain carriers may not be reasonably estimated. If we are unable to reasonably estimate the amount of revenue to be recognized in the current period, we recognize revenues upon the receipt of a carrier revenue report and when our portion of a game’s licensed revenues is fixed or

determinable and collection is probable. To monitor the reliability of our estimates, our management, where possible, reviews the revenues by carrier and by game on a weekly basis to identify unusual trends such as differential adoption rates by carriers or the introduction of new handsets. If we deem a carrier not to be creditworthy, we defer all revenues from the arrangement with that carrier until we receive payment and all other revenue recognition criteria have been met.

 

In accordance with Emerging Issues Task Force, or EITF, Issue No. 99-19, Reporting Revenue Gross as a Principal Versus Net as an Agent, we recognize as revenues the amount the carrier reports as payable to us upon the sale of our games. We have evaluated our carrier agreements and have determined that we are not the principal when selling our games through carriers. Key indicators that we evaluated in reaching this determination included:

 

 

Our royalty expenses consist of fees that we pay to branded content owners for the use of their intellectual property, including trademarks and copyrights, in the development of our games. Royalty-based obligations are either paid in advance and capitalized on our balance sheet as prepaid royalties or accrued as incurred and subsequently paid. These royalty-based obligations are expensed to cost of revenues at the greater of the revenues derived from the relevant game multiplied by the applicable contractual rate or an effective royalty rate based on expected net product sales. Advanced license payments that are not recoupable against future royalties are capitalized and amortized over the lesser of the estimated life of the branded title or the term of the license agreement.

 

Our contracts with some licensors include minimum guaranteed royalty payments, which are payable regardless of the ultimate volume of sales to end users. Effective January 1, 2006, we adopted FSP FIN 45-3, Application of FASB Interpretation No. 45 to Minimum Revenue Guarantees Granted to a Business or Its Owners. As a result, we recorded a minimum guaranteed liability of approximately $1.4 million as of December 31, 2006. When no significant performance remains with the licensor, we initially record each of these guarantees as an asset and as a liability at the contractual amount. We believe that the contractual amount represents the fair value of our liability. When significant performance remains with the licensor, we record royalty payments as an asset when actually paid and as a liability when incurred, rather than upon execution of the contract. We classify minimum royalty payment obligations as current liabilities to the extent they are contractually due within the next twelve months.

 

Each quarter, we also evaluate the realization of our royalties as well as any unrecognized guarantees not yet paid to determine amounts that we deem unlikely to be realized through product sales. We use estimates of revenues, cash flows and net margins to evaluate the future realization of prepaid royalties and guarantees. This evaluation considers multiple factors, including the term of the agreement, forecasted demand, game life cycle status, game development plans and current and anticipated sales levels. To the extent that this evaluation indicates that the remaining prepaid and

guaranteed royalty payments are not recoverable, we record an impairment charge in the period such impairment is indicated. Subsequently, if actual market conditions are more favorable than anticipated, amounts of prepaid royalties previously written down may be utilized, resulting in lower cost of revenues and higher income from operations than previously expected in that period. For example, in 2006, our cost of revenues was reduced by $167,000 as a result of selling games on which the prepaid royalties had previously been impaired. During 2004, 2005 and 2006, we recorded impairment charges of $231,000, $1.6 million and $355,000, respectively. We believe that the combination of the evolving market for licensing other companies’ intellectual property and our improved license pre-qualification process will reduce risk of future impairments. The impairments that we have recorded to date are predominantly related to license agreements entered into prior to 2005 and had significant guarantees for which the success was tied to a third-party product release. In 2005 and 2006, the market for licensed intellectual property stabilized, resulting in lower upfront commitment fees. We believe our improved visibility regarding forecasted demand and gaming trends supports our ability to reasonably determine the realizability of the assets on our consolidated balance sheet.

 

We evaluate our long-lived assets, including property and equipment and intangible assets with finite lives, for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value of these assets may not be recoverable in accordance with SFAS No. 144, Accounting for the Impairment or Disposal of Long-Lived Assets. Factors considered important that could result in an impairment review include significant underperformance relative to expected historical or projected future operating results, significant changes in the manner of use of the acquired assets, significant negative industry or economic trends, and a significant decline in our stock price for a sustained period of time. We recognize impairment based on the difference between the fair value of the asset and its carrying value. Fair value is generally measured based on either quoted market prices, if applicable, or a discounted cash flow analysis.

 

In accordance with SFAS No. 142, Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets, we do not amortize goodwill or other intangible assets with indefinite lives but rather test them for impairment. SFAS No. 142 requires us to perform an impairment review of our goodwill balance at least annually, which we do as of September 30 each year, and also whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of these assets may not be recoverable. In our impairment review, we look at two of our reporting units — the United States and EMEA — since none of our goodwill is attributable to our third operating unit, the rest of the world. We compare the fair value of each unit to its carrying value, including goodwill. The primary methods used to determine the fair values for SFAS No. 142 impairment purposes were the discounted cash flow and market methods. We determined the assumptions supporting the discounted cash flow method, including the assumed 18% discount rate as of September 30, 2006, using our best estimates as of the date of the impairment review. If the carrying value, including goodwill, exceeds the fair value, we perform an allocation of the unit’s fair value to its identifiable tangible and nongoodwill intangible assets and liabilities. This allows us to determine an implied fair value for the unit’s goodwill. We then compare the implied fair value of the unit’s goodwill with the carrying value of the unit’s goodwill. If the carrying value of the unit’s goodwill is greater than its implied fair value, we would recognize an impairment charge for the difference. To date, no unit’s carrying value has exceeded its fair value, and thus we have taken no goodwill impairment charges. We believe that, as a result of our recent revenue growth, operating results and use of cash, we will begin generating cash flows from operating activities in the latter half of 2007.

 

Application of the goodwill impairment test requires judgment, including the identification of the reporting units, the assigning of assets and liabilities to reporting units, the assigning of goodwill to reporting units and the determining of the fair value of each reporting unit. Significant judgments and assumptions include the forecast of future operating results used in the preparation of the estimated

future cash flows, including forecasted revenues and costs based on current titles under contract, forecasted new titles that we expect to release, timing of overall market growth and our percentage of that market, discount rates and growth rates in terminal values. The market comparable approach estimates the fair value of a company by applying to that company market multiples of publicly traded firms in similar lines of business. The use of the market comparable approach requires judgments regarding the comparability of companies with lines of business similar to ours. This process is particularly difficult in a situation where no domestic public mobile games companies exist. The factors used in the selection of comparable companies include growth characteristics as measured by revenue or other financial metrics; margin characteristics; product-defined markets served; customer-defined markets served; the size of a company as measured by financial metrics such as revenue or market capitalization; the competitive position of a company, such as whether it is a market leader in terms of indicators like market share; and company-specific issues that suggest appropriateness or inappropriateness of a particular company as a comparable. We weighted the income and market comparable valuations equally as we did not believe that either method was more appropriate. Further, the total gross value calculated under each method was not materially different, and therefore if the weighting were different we do not believe that this would have significantly impacted our conclusion. If different comparable companies had been used, the market multiples and resulting estimates of the fair value of our stock would also have been different. Changes in these estimates and assumptions could materially affect the determination of fair value for each reporting unit, which could trigger impairment.

 

We apply the principles of SFAS No. 86, Accounting for the Costs of Computer Software to Be Sold, Leased, or Otherwise Marketed. SFAS No. 86 requires that software development costs incurred in conjunction with product development be charged to research and development expense until technological feasibility is established. Thereafter, until the product is released for sale, software development costs must be capitalized and reported at the lower of unamortized cost or net realizable value of the related product. We have adopted the “tested working model” approach to establishing technological feasibility for our games. Under this approach, we do not consider a game in development to have passed the technological feasibility milestone until we have completed a model of the game that contains essentially all the functionality and features of the final game and have tested the model to ensure that it works as expected. To date, we have not incurred significant costs between the establishment of technological feasibility and the release of a game for sale; thus, we have expensed all software development costs as incurred. We also will consider the following factors in determining whether costs should be capitalized: the emerging nature of the mobile game market; the gradual evolution of the wireless carrier platforms and mobile handsets for which we develop games; the lack of pre-orders or sales history for our games; the uncertainty regarding a game’s revenue-generating potential; our lack of control over the carrier distribution channel resulting in uncertainty as to when, if ever, a game will be available for sale; and our historical practice of canceling games at any stage of the development process.

 

The following table summarizes by grant date the number of shares subject to options granted between April 26, 2004 and December 31, 2006 and the per share exercise price, deemed fair value and resulting intrinsic value.

 

 

Prior to January 1, 2006, we accounted for stock-based employee compensation arrangements in accordance with the provisions of Accounting Principles Board Opinion No. 25, Accounting for Stock Issued to Employees, or APB No. 25, and related interpretations, and followed the disclosure provisions of SFAS No. 123, Accounting for Stock-Based Compensation. Under APB No. 25, compensation expense for an option was based on the difference, if any, on the date of the grant between the fair value of a company’s common stock and the exercise price of the option. APB No. 25 required companies to record deferred stock-based compensation on their balance sheets and amortize it to expense over the vesting periods of the individual options. We recorded deferred stock-based compensation of $2.6 million and $1.1 million related to employee stock options granted in 2004 and 2005, respectively. We amortize deferred stock-based compensation using the multiple option method as prescribed by FASB Interpretation No. 28, Accounting for Stock Appreciation Rights and Other Variable Stock Option or Award Plans, or FIN 28, over the option vesting period using an accelerated amortization schedule. We expensed employee stock-based compensation of $288,000 and $1.5 million in 2004 and 2005, respectively.

 

Effective January 1, 2006, we adopted the fair value provisions of SFAS No. 123R, Share-Based Payment, which supersedes our previous accounting under APB No. 25. SFAS No. 123R requires the recognition of compensation expense, using a fair-value based method, for costs related to all share-based payments including stock options. SFAS No. 123R requires companies to estimate the fair value of share-based payment awards on the grant date using an option pricing model. We adopted SFAS No. 123R using the prospective transition method, which required us to apply SFAS No. 123R

to option grants on and after the required effective date. For options granted prior to the January 1, 2006 effective date that remained unvested on that date, we continue to recognize compensation expense under the intrinsic value method of APB No. 25. In addition, we are continuing to amortize those awards granted prior to January 1, 2006 utilizing an accelerated amortization schedule, while we will expense all options granted or modified on and after January 1, 2006 on a straight-line basis. To value awards granted on or after January 1, 2006, we used the Black-Scholes option pricing model, which requires, among other inputs, an estimate of the fair value of the underlying common stock on the date of grant and assumptions as to volatility of our stock over the term of the related options, the expected term of the options, the risk-free interest rate and the option forfeiture rate. We determined the assumptions used in this pricing model at each grant date. We concluded that it was not practicable to calculate the volatility of our share price since our securities are not publicly traded and therefore there is no readily determinable market value for our stock. Therefore, we based expected volatility on the historical volatility of a peer group of publicly traded entities. We determined the expected term of our options based upon historical exercises, post-vesting cancellations and the options’ contractual term. We based the risk-free rate for the expected term of the option on the U.S. Treasury Constant Maturity Rate as of the grant date. We determined the forfeiture rate based upon our historical experience with option cancellations adjusted for unusual or infrequent events.

 

In 2006, we recorded total employee non-cash stock-based compensation expense of $1.7 million, of which $863,000 represented continued amortization of deferred stock-based compensation for options granted prior to 2006 and $877,000 represented expense recorded in accordance with SFAS 123R based on 2006 options grants with an expected term of approximately 3.36 years. In future periods, stock-based compensation expense may increase as we issue additional equity-based awards to continue to attract and retain key employees. Additionally, SFAS 123R requires that we recognize compensation expense only for the portion of stock options that are expected to vest. Our estimated forfeiture rate in 2006 was 12%. If the actual number of forfeitures differs from that estimated by management, we may be required to record adjustments to stock-based compensation expense in future periods.

 

Given the absence of an active market for our common stock, our board of directors, the members of which we believe had extensive business, finance and venture capital experience, was required to estimate the fair value of our common stock for purposes of determining exercise prices for the options it granted. Through the first half of 2005, it determined the estimated fair value of our common stock, based in part on a market capitalization analysis of comparable public companies and other metrics, including revenue multiples and price/earning multiples, as well as the following:

 

 

In February 2005, we engaged an independent third-party valuation firm, Duff & Phelps, to perform valuations of our common stock and convertible preferred stock at least quarterly. We obtained estimates of the respective then-current fair values of our stock prepared by Duff & Phelps as of December 2004, March 2005, April 2005, June 2005, September 2005, December 2005, March 2006, June 2006, September 2006 and December 2006. The first valuation report, as of December 2004, was delivered in June 2005. We endeavor to obtain these estimates as quickly as possible and recently have received a draft within one month and a final report within two months of the valuation date. The delay between the initial draft and the finalization of the report is due to the completion of the review process to ensure the valuation adequately considers all of the appropriate factors. These valuations used a probability-weighted combination of the market comparable approach and the income approach to estimate our aggregate enterprise value at each valuation date. The market comparable approach estimates the fair value of a company by applying to that company market multiples of publicly traded firms in similar lines of business. The use of the market comparable approach requires judgments regarding the comparability of companies with lines of business similar to ours. If different comparable companies had been used, the market multiples and resulting estimates of the fair value of our stock would also have been different. The income approach involves applying appropriate risk-adjusted discount rates to estimated debt-free cash flows, based on forecasted revenue and costs. The projections used in connection with this valuation were based on our expected operating performance over the forecast period. There is inherent uncertainty in these estimates. If different discount rates or other assumptions had been used, the valuations would have been different.

 

Duff & Phelps applied a 50% weighting to the market comparable approach and a 50% weighting to the income approach in its valuations. It allocated the aggregate implied enterprise value that it estimated to the shares of preferred and common stock using the option-pricing method at each valuation date. The option-pricing method involves making assumptions regarding the anticipated timing of a potential liquidity event, such as an initial public offering, and estimates of the volatility of our equity securities. The anticipated timing was based on the plans of our board of directors and management. Estimating the volatility of the share price of a privately held company is complex because there is no readily available market for the shares. Duff & Phelps estimated the volatility of our stock based on available information on the volatility of stocks of publicly traded companies in our industry. Had different estimates of volatility and anticipated timing of a potential liquidity event been used, the allocations between the shares of preferred and common stock would have been different and would have resulted in a different value being determined for our common stock as of each valuation date. Due to the contemplated timing of a potential public offering, we reduced the non-marketability discount applied to our stock from 25% at September 30, 2005 to 6% at December 31, 2006.

 

Since October 1, 2005, we have granted options as described below. On December 15, 2005, we granted options with an exercise price of $3.54 per share. The fair value of our common stock as of September 30, 2005 was $3.09 per share based upon Duff & Phelps’ retrospectively prepared valuation report, which was finalized on April 18, 2006. The fair value of our common stock as of December 31, 2005 changed minimally to $3.27 per share based upon Duff & Phelps’ retrospectively prepared valuation report, which was also finalized on April 18, 2006. Thus, the exercise price of the options granted on December 15, 2005 was above the fair value of our common stock on the grant date.

 

On February 2, 2006 and March 9, 2006, we granted options with an exercise price of $3.57 per share. The fair value of our common stock as of March 31, 2006 was determined to be $3.57 per share based upon Duff & Phelps’ retrospectively prepared valuation report, which was finalized on June 22, 2006. Also, on April 12, 2006, a sale of common stock was made by an existing stockholder to a sophisticated independent third-party investor, who was not an existing stockholder, for $3.57 per share. Thus, the exercise price of the options granted on February 2, 2006 and March 9, 2006 was also above the fair value of our common stock on the grant dates. The increase in the estimated fair

value of our common stock from $3.27 at December 31, 2005 to $3.57 at March 31, 2006 was primarily the result of the following events during the intervening period, as well as a decrease in the non-marketability discount from 25% to 14%: