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Spain's Zed buys X Spanish mobile content firm Zed Group has bought London-based mobile media company Player X for an undisclosed sum. Player X, which was launched five years ago by former Digital Bridges exec Tony Pearce, supplies video content and games to many major mobile networks and is backed Nordic Venture Partners and Arts Alliance. The company has agreements with mobile operators such as O2 in the UK, Orange World, Spanish network Telefónica Móviles and Vodafone Global, among others, providing them with games, mobile TV and video content. Player X has been busy lately, signing mobile content deals with Virgin Mobile in the UK, Endemol and Universal. Pearce said Player X would continue to distribute content and deliver services for mobile carriers and content partners as well as "drive" the games portal management business alongside Zed. A spokeswoman for Zed declined confirm a reported £10m (US$15) figure published in the UK's newspapers the Sunday Times, telling C21 this amount was incorrect. She added the deal would see the Spanish company assuming Player X's investment plans and supporting its future financial needs. Through the acquisition, Zed adds video on-demand and mobile TV operating divisions to its portfolio. Javier Pérez Dolset, founder and CEO of Zed Group, said the acquisition was an "important milestone" in the company's business strategy. "Working with Player X, one of the key players in the mobile content industry, we are able to help consumer brands and carriers to create and deliver the best premium content," he added. "This acquisition reinforces our strategy to continue our expansion into storefront and portal management for carriers across the world." The sale consolidates Zed's position as a one-stop shop, developer, publisher and aggregator of multi-platform content, and is seemingly the latest step in Zed's strategy to do more in TV, enabling it to provide a multi-platform service. Zed Group recently set up its own TV division to develop original content for multiple screens, with local broadcaster Antena 3 as its first broadcast partner. It currently produces 85% of its content in-house, which is then complimented by third-party property from partners, including the US National Basketball Association and Lionsgate. Speaking to C21 in February, Dolset said the company's vision for 2009 was to pioneer the multi-platform digital 'communitainment' experience, from PC to mobile, console, cinema and television. "Mobile content is undoubtedly at the core of Zed's business but beyond this we are able to offer online entertainment, film animation and video game production through our companies Ilion Animation and Pyro Studios," he said. Martin Buxton 6 May 2009 © C21 Media 2009 
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