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Hachette Livre has acquired a majority stake in a London-based mobile app company, Brainbow Ltd.
Brainbow, founded in 2012, created the brain-training app Peak, a mobile digital subscription service that has accrued 15m downloads around the world. It was named Apple's "Best App" in 2014, while Google Play chose it as its "Best Self Improvement App" in 2015 and 2016. Peak is also a Future Fifty company, selected in 2015 to be part of a Tech City network supporting the UK’s "most pioneering" tech companies. Brainbow will continue to be based in London.
The news follows Hachette UK's acquisition of Neon Play in June 2016, and chief executive Tim Hely Hutchsinon's views, shared in an interview screened earlier this month at Futurebook, that the future of games could be as important to its business as children’s books or sci-fi and fantasy. During the same panel he called publishers relative “amateurs” in the app space and revealed Hachette UK, since acquiring Neon Play, had “canned” many of its apps to focus on "fewer and better".
Arnaud Nourry, chairman and c.e.o. of Hachette Livre, said: “After Hachette UK acquired Neon Play in June 2016, the acquisition of Brainbow is another step in Hachette Livre’s mobile strategy. The co-founders are talented experts who will bring new skills to Hachette Livre. We are delighted to welcome them into the group.”
Brainbow's co-founders, Itamar Lesuisse, Sagi Shorrer, Gerald Goldstein and Xavier Louis, said: “We are excited to join Hachette Livre and look forward to leveraging synergies with Hachette Livre around global distribution and contents. This move will help fuel the global expansion of Brainbow’s award winning app and its future products.”
Isabelle Magnac, executive vice-president of Hachette Livre said: “Brainbow’s founders have proven they know how to create and run a successful subscription-based mobile app. I’m happy to welcome Brainbow to my team and look forward to working with such a talented group of people to further grow the business.”