Casual games company, Oberon Media, has acquired Kenjitsu, a Nikitova-affiliated outsourcing studio located in St Petersburg, Russia, and Friends Games, developer of the hit game Magic Match: The Genie’s Journey, located near Kiev, Ukraine. By establishing a major hub for development of content and game platforms in Russia and the Ukraine, Oberon has expanded its Eastern European presence and will be able to provide developers throughout the region with easy access to game production and marketing services, critical to developing hit titles in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Olya Nikitova, co-founder of Kenjitsu and CEO of Nikitova Games, will join Oberon as VP of Online Publishing Eastern Europe and will oversee the publishing operations, from St Petersburg, where the company’s new Eastern European headquarters will be based. Taras Tarasov, founder and President of Friends Games, will join Oberon as Director of Eastern European Developer Relations and will manage relationships with casual game developers throughout the region.

Don Ryan, SVP of Publishing for Oberon, commented: "Eastern Europe is full of highly skilled casual game developers who have been contributing to the casual games space since its inception. By building a robust presence in this territory, Oberon will be able to provide its developer partners with market information to make better informed decisions about product design as well as secure the broadest possible distribution across multiple platforms. Oberon’s new Eastern European team is dedicated to bringing new opportunities to top local talent, so they can achieve their full potential as world-class developers."

Mr. Nikitova added, "By establishing a major presence here, Oberon’s goal is to leverage the vast pool of talent the region has in the games industry and to become the partner of choice for developers throughout Eastern Europe. We will be adding to Oberon’s impressive list of developer services with expertise such as high-end art production, of which Kenjitsu is a master.’’ In addition to her new role at Oberon, Olya will continue in her current role at Nikitova Games.

Mr. Tarasov concluded, "A large part of Friends Games’ commercial success can be attributed to our publishing partnership with Oberon. Oberon has a strong array of services that can make any developer more successful." Financial terms of the acquisitions were not disclosed.

Oberon Media multi-platform casual-games company, is the first company to deliver global, integrated casual-games solutions across online, mobile and interactive TV platforms, following its recent acquisitions of I-play and PixelPlay, respective leaders in the mobile games and iTV casual games markets.

The Oberon Game Center platform is the industry standard and has been adopted by some of the world’s largest corporations including Microsoft, Comcast, Verizon, Electronic Arts, France Telecom and NHN. The platform combines casual-game content, merchandizing and features to fulfill each partner’s specific needs. Oberon Media’s publishing arm works with the industry’s best, award-winning game developers to produce the top-selling casual games, which can be played in more than a dozen languages across online, mobile, console and iTV platforms.

Founded in 2003, Oberon Media is headquartered in New York with offices across North America, Europe and Asia, and is backed by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Oak Investment Partners and Lehman Brothers.

Nikitova LLC is a leading international multimedia development company with offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, London and development studios in Eastern Europe. Nikitova LLC provides game development services for PC and all existing console and mobile platforms.

For more information, please visit: www.oberon-media.com