Cellfish Media, a major provider of mobile services and marketing solutions, this morning announced that it has acquired mobile app publisher Airborne Mobile.
The newly formed Airborne Studios will combine Cellfish Media’s original-content publishing activities with Airborne Mobile’s distribution of branded mobile content and applications.
According to the press release, the new entity will focus on creating and distributing branded mobile content and applications for high-usage value, including football-league apps, Family Guy, CollegeHumor, Betty Boop and FHM.
Airborne Studios will boast a content catalog of roughly 35,000 pieces of content through 110 licensing partners. Airborne’s mobile applications have been downloaded approximately 4 million times – across 20 distribution outlets including app stores and carrier partners – and the company has seen about 40 million downloads of its graphics, music and games.
Airborne’s former CEO, Garner Bornstein, will move on and henceforth focus on its newest venture, Txt TV, an interactive television network.
Funny sidenote: this is the second time Bornstein has sold Airborne, which he co-founded with Andy Nulman. In June of 2005, 85% of the company was sold to Japanese company Cybird for $90 million, only to be bought back by the two original founders of the company three years later.