Tapjoy acquires 5Rocks, a Korean startup, to boost mobile analytics know-how

5Rocks, a mobile game analytics startup that launched in April this year, has been acquired by US-based Tapjoy.

Tapjoy, which runs a monetization platform aimed at mobile app developers, revealed numerous details of the acquisition this afternoon but did not disclose how much the deal is worth.

5Rocks’ service remains open to customers for now, but it will likely close once it’s fully integrated with Tapjoy later this year. The deal effectively buys the Korean startup’s tech and analytics know-how so that it can be absorbed into Tapjoy’s nGen platform. Tapjoy now claims to be the “first ad-tech solution for developers to offer mobile analytics, marketing automation, and ad monetization solutions, all under one SDK.”

This is Tapjoy’s latest move in its ongoing battle with Flurry, which was acquired last month by Yahoo for US$200 million.

“5Rocks’ services are complementary to what we have built at Tapjoy, and our combined platforms and team will have the technology, products and expertise to increase advertising effectiveness and help further define the future of app engagement and monetization services,” says Tapjoy CEO Steve Wadsworth in today’s announcement.

Changsu Lee, the CEO and founder of 5Rocks, joins his entire team in moving to Tapjoy. Before creating his latest venture, Lee worked at GameON, a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, and also worked as a product manager at SK Telecom, Korea’s largest telco.

“Having an innovative and award-winning Silicon Valley company acquire a Korean startup validates our hard work and technological leadership in Korea,” says Lee.

5Rocks had traction and investor interest from the start. It got funding from KDDI, Adways, Stonebridge Capital, and more recently Global Brain. It currently has 450 developers as clients.