BEIJING, August 2, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- KongZhong Corporation (NASDAQ: KONG), a leading provider of digital entertainment services for consumers in the PRC, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Meteor Entertainment, Inc. to bring its game Hawken (www.playhawken.com) to the mainland China online game market.
As part of this agreement, KONG has granted a warrant to Meteor for the purchase of up to 40 million of the KONG's ordinary shares (equivalent to 1 million of KONG's ADSs), with an exercise price of US$ 0.1985 per ordinary share (or US$ 7.94 per ADS). The warrant is exercisable after the commercial launch of Hawken in the mainland China market and is valid for one year after such commercial launch.
The Company's Chief Financial Officer and Board Member, Jay Chang, said, "We are excited to partner with Meteor to bring Hawken to the China online game market. We believe that Hawken's unique art-style and, more importantly, fast-paced action and strategic gameplay in the form of Mech combat will have broad appeal to Chinese first-person shooter online game players."
Mark Long, Chief Executive Officer of Meteor Entertainment, said, "We believe that Hawken has the potential to be highly successful in China with KONG's help! Like Meteor, they are seeking to disrupt the online game market by delivering new games with higher production values and gameplay than those that are currently in the market."
About KongZhong:
We are one of the leading providers of digital entertainment services for consumers in the PRC. We operate three main business units, namely WVAS, mobile games and Internet games. We are one of the leading providers of WVAS to mobile phone users and have been in cooperation with all major telecommunications operators in the PRC since 2002. In 2005, we began providing feature-phone mobile games on the networks of China Mobile with the acquisition of Tianjin Mammoth, a mobile games developer. To further expand our mobile games development capabilities, we acquired Noumena in 2012 in order to develop smartphone mobile games on smartphone mobile operating systems, such as iOS and Android. We commenced our Internet games business in 2010 through our acquisition of Dacheng, a developer and operator of Internet games in the PRC. In addition to developing and operating our self-developed Internet games, such as Loong, Demon Code and Kung Fu Hero, we are the exclusive operator of the popular World of Tanks game for the PRC Internet games market.
About Hawken:
HAWKEN is a free-to-play first person mech combat shooter. Hawken is being created by Adhesive Studios based in Pasadena, CA. The game is being developed to create an intense and enjoyable battle experience that captures the feeling of piloting a heavy war machine while keeping the action fast-paced and strategic. For more information, check out www.playhawken.com
About Meteor Entertainment, Inc.:
Based in Seattle, WA, Meteor Entertainment is a newly formed videogame publisher focused on successfully publishing F2P games globally, with an emphasis on compelling content and setting the standard for customer service and community engagement. HAWKEN, created by Adhesive Games, will be the first tent pole title for Meteor Entertainment. To learn more about Meteor Entertainment visit www.meteor-ent.com.
Safe Harbor Statements:
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding trends in the wireless value-added services, wireless media, mobile games and online games industries and our future results of operations, financial condition and business prospects. Although such statements are based on our own information and information from other sources we believe to be reliable, you should not place undue reliance on them. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual market trends and our results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these forward looking statements for a variety of reasons. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, continued competitive pressure in China's wireless value-added services, wireless media, mobile games and online games industries and the effect of such pressure on revenues; our ability to develop new products that are commercially successful; unpredictable changes in technology, consumer demand and usage preferences in the markets we operate; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights; the short operating history of certain of our business segments, in particular the online games segment; the state of and any change in our relationship with China's telecommunications operators; our dependence on the billing systems of telecommunications operators for our performance; the outcome of our investment of operating income generated from the WVAS segment into the development of our wireless Internet, mobile games and online games segments; changes in the regulations or policies of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other government authorities relevant to our businesses; and changes in political, economic, legal and social conditions in China, including the Chinese government's policies with respect to economic growth, foreign exchange, foreign investment and entry by foreign companies into China's telecommunications and online games markets. For additional discussion of these risks and uncertainties and other factors, please see the documents we file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, which apply only as of the date of this press release.
