July 9, 2013

Hasbro buys majority interest in Backflip

BOULDER – Toy company Hasbro Inc. paid $112 million to buy a 70 percent stake in Backflip Studios LLC, maker of smartphone games such as DragonVale and Paper Toss.

Boulder-based Backflip will create mobile games featuring Hasbro brands, the companies said in a press statement. Backflip will remain in Boulder and its management team will continue to run the company.

“The acquisition of Backflip fits perfectly into our strategy of extending our brands into all forms and formats,” Brian Goldner, president and chief executive officer of Pawtucket, Rhode Island,-based Habro said in the statement.

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Backflip was founded in 2009 by Julian Farrior, Dale Thoms and Tom Blind. It is one of the fastest-growing mobile game studios in the country, with more than 300 million downloads of its games, the company said in the press statement.

The company will continue to develop its own intellectual property. Backflip’s other branded games include NinJump, Ragdoll Blaster, Army of Darkness Defense and Outworded. The company has nine open mobile-application-development-related jobs posted on its website.

Hasbro games and toys include Monopoly, Transformers, Nerf footballs, Play-Doh and My Little Pony.

“Having grown up playing Dungeons & Dragons, Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly and throwing a Nerf football, it’s exciting to have our games brought into the Hasbro family,” Farrior said in a blog post on the company website. “We are thrilled to be partnering with Hasbro, whose games, toys and brands have deeply influenced generations of consumers including our own team.”

Backflip’s DragonVale game was the top-grossing iPad application and the fourth top-grossing iPhone application in 2012, according to the press statement.


BOULDER – Toy company Hasbro Inc. paid $112 million to buy a 70 percent stake in Backflip Studios LLC, maker of smartphone games such as DragonVale and Paper Toss.

Boulder-based Backflip will create mobile games featuring Hasbro brands, the companies said in a press statement. Backflip will remain in Boulder and its management team will continue to run the company.

“The acquisition of Backflip fits perfectly into our strategy of extending our brands into all forms and formats,” Brian Goldner, president and chief executive officer of Pawtucket, Rhode Island,-based Habro said in the statement.

Backflip was founded in 2009 by Julian Farrior, Dale…

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