Philippines’ Xurpas buys into Singapore-based gaming firm MatchMe

Philippine tech company Xurpas has boosted its product portfolio by taking a significant stake in mobile and web tournament games platform MatchMe.

Xurpas bought 31.52 percent of Singapore-based MatchMe for US$1.4 million, it said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

MatchMe runs a real-time, multiplayer platform for games. It’s also open to third-party game content integration. This means casual gamers can play in real-time versus other people regardless of data connection speed. It also allows customers to duel with friends or take part in competitive tournaments locally or on a national, regional, or even global level.

Under the terms of the agreement, Xurpas will be granted the license and right to use the MatchMe platform and its related game content. It also gives Xurpas exclusive rights to use MatchMe for telco deployment in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand.

“MatchMe is a truly unique offering, potentially allowing millions of players to play against each other on any device, anytime, anywhere. The platform allows us to provide a unique game playing experience to consumers in the Philippines, the rest of Southeast Asia, and worldwide,” said Xurpas president and CEO Nix Nolledo.

Spending on mobile

MatchMe is the fourth company that Xurpas has invested in since its IPO in December last year.

The company announced last week its entry into the Indonesian market with the purchase of a 49 percent stake in mobile content provider for US$250,000.

Xurpas also earlier acquired 21.78 percent of Singaporean game development studio Altitude Games and 51 percent of Storm Flex Systems for US$740,800 and US$4.3 million, respectively.

“The reason why we raised money through our IPO last year is to expand our product line and to significantly enlarge our distribution platform,” Nolledo said of the string of acquisitions.

“Casual games is one of Xurpas’ biggest growth drivers. As consumers move from feature phones to smart phones, new platforms like Matchme enable us to deliver amazing experiences to the next wave of mobile gamers,” he added.