Tag: mobile apps

Activision Blizzard acquires the mobile games firm behind Candy Crush

| November 9, 2015

Reports have stated that the purchase of the app developer has now been made for $5.9 billion.

The tremendously popular mobile games developer behind Candy Crush Saga, King Digital, has now been acquired for a reported $5.9 billion by another developer, Activision Blizzard.

Activision Blizzard is the developer of popular video games such as Destiny and Call of Duty.

By way of this purchase, Activision Blizzard will be obtaining all the outstanding shares of King Digital for $18.00 per share, in cash. This is a premium of 20 percent over the closing price of King on October 30, the day the deal actually went through. Once this deal officially closes, it will mean that two of the top 5 top grossing mobile games in the United States (Candy Crush Saga and Candy Crush Soda Saga) will be brought together with the leading console video game franchise (Call of Duty), as well as the largest franchise in PC games (World of Warcraft).

This mobile games developer acquisition has the potential to be a highly powerful one, heading forward.

Mobile Games - Activision Blizzard Aqauires King DigitalOn the first trading day after the acquisition, the shares of King Digital spiked by 15 percent in pre-trading, while the shares of Activision slumped slightly by 2.6 percent. In terms of the revenues of the companies, during the 12 months that ended with the close of September, King had brought in $2.1 billion while Activision Blizzard took in $4.7 billion.

According to the CEO of Activision Blizzard, Robert Kotick, when discussing King, “They built an incredible business.” He explained that “When we think about people who create compelling content and satisfy large audiences, they’ve been brilliant at it. We thought it would make a great opportunity for us to enter a new market.”

The team of CEO of King, Riccardo Zacconi, COO Stephane Kurgan and CCO Sebastian Knuttsson will be continuing their operations of King as an independent unit of operations. Zacconi said that they will be pooling their expertise in free to play mobile games with the world-class brands at Activision Blizzard, a company that already has a solid history of building and sustaining some of the top video gaming franchises.

Mobile security worries exist among consumers using the cloud

| November 4, 2015

According to a recent report, device users aren’t necessarily confident in this form of storage.

Cyber and mobile security and app delivery solutions firm, Radware, has recently released a report called “Mobile Application Security: Consumer Perspectives and Organizational Implications,” in which it was revealed that the cloud isn’t exactly eliciting feelings of confidence from consumers.

Harris Poll conducted the online survey on behalf of Radware and involved the participation of 2,000 American consumers.

The survey was geared toward the opinions of adults in the United States with regards to the mobile security of cloud-based apps and service and the way they’re used. It was determined that it is not uncommon for consumers to be unaware of the fact that many of the mobile apps they use on a regular basis are dependent on the cloud. This means that they are also unaware of the potential threat they face to their personal information if the cloud storage was ever breached.

This lack of understanding of mobile security could be considered troubling simply because it may reduce protection efforts.

Cloud - Mobile SecurityAmong the participants in the study, 67 percent said that they were not using cloud-based mobile apps. That said, applications that use the cloud are rapidly growing in their popularity and usage. At the same time, 87 percent of Americans feel that cloud based apps are at risk of being hacked. Another 58 percent of cloud based service or application users said that they were concerned about the safety of their personal data if those apps or services should ever experience a cyber attack.

According to Radware director of security solutions marketing, Ben Desjardins, “Data breaches and hacks are not only on the rise, they are becoming commonplace.” He added that “At the same time, cloud-based apps are booming, offering convenient ways to expedite and simplify daily needs from ordering a meal to requesting a car with the tap of a finger.”

Desjardins explained that the majority of consumers don’t actually understand their relationship with cloud based applications. Therefore, it will be up to the companies that are working to engage with mobile device users by way of those applications to bear the burden of mobile security education as well as of remediation if they should ever experience a cyber attack in which any personal information could be threatened.