By
Enrique Velasco-Castillo

Q3 saw a spree of mobile content creation and monetisation-related acquisitions, as leaders in the space continued the battle to consolidate the entire value chain. The deals span the whole range of services from content creation, publishing and distribution, to in-app purchases and mobile payments. Funding activity recovered in Q3 with 125 deals - a 71 per cent increase year-on-year - making it the second most active quarter on record after Q1 2011.

An 88 per cent increase in total funding value over the previous quarter, and a staggering 368 per cent year-on-year increase were harbingers of a return to an upwards trend.

Google's eight acquisitions during the period provided hints of the company's future strategic direction. IHS Screen Digest expects the Google Payments service to be enhanced through the addition of location-based deals and loyalty rewards, whereas the Google + social network will benefit from enhanced sharing of content. Android, on its part, will feature revamped face-recognition software as part of its security (unlocking) capabilities.

The report includes a historical focus on Mobile Games showing how investment activity has sparked the coming of age of the industry in 2011, with a staggering 2,167 per cent increase in funding year-on-year in Q1.

Highlights:

• Google led the number of acquisitions.
• eBay and American Express made significant mobile payments acquisitions.
• Consolidation in mobile games is underway.
• Mobile content-related start-ups attract the attention of large media players, get acquired to revamp the latter's mobile content distribution and monetisation channels.
• The upward trend in funding returns in Q3, making it the second most active quarter on record.
• Social Networks and Hardware companies took the lion's share of funding, with 33 and 27 per cent of the total amounts respectively.
• India takes second spot after the US in funding amounts.

In this report:

• Introduction
• M&A deals: Pace increases again
• M&A Spotlight: Content is King
• Funding deals: Upward trend returns
• Social networks and Hardware take the lion's share of funding
• Q3 2011 Top Funding Deals
• Funding Deals: Regional Analysis
• Funding and M&A Historical Spotlight: Mobile Games come of age

Tables and charts included:

• Mobile M&A historical deal-flow volume
• Q3 2011 M&A Deals per category
• M&A Spotlight: Mobile Content
• Number of mobile-related funding deals in Q3
• Mobile funding - total value ($m) in Q3
• Q3 2011 Total funding value by activity
• Q3 2011 funding deals by activity
• Q3 2011 Top Funding Deals
• Q3 2011 - Top mobile funding amounts by country ($m)
• Mobile games M&A deals and funding values ($m)
• Notable mobile games M&A deals YTD 2011

Pages: 8

Tables & charts: 11

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