• Biz Journals, Tuesday, February 23, 2010 12:52 PM

In another sign of the mobile applications market heating up, PocketGear has acquired smartphone app provider Handango to create a mobile content marketplace with more than 140,000 titles combined. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The merged company will continue to operate under the PocketGear name and Handango will become part of PocketGear's network of direct-to-consumer storefronts including SymbianGear.com, AndroidGear.com, RIMGear.com.

PocketGear and Handango together have generated more than 400 million in mobile application revenues to date from customers in 175 countries and powers mobile storefronts for more than 40 partners, including four of the five top handset makers. The deal comes on the same day mobile ad network Millennial Media announced its acquisition of mobile analytics firm TapMetrics to help developers track app usage.

It also comes on the heels of two dozen of the world's largest mobile operators announcing an initiative at the Mobile World Congress to create an open platform for application development to better compete with likes of Apple's App Store and Google's Android Market.

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