A SUBSIDIARY of GMA Network Inc. on Wednesday said it has entered a deal with an online gaming company to subscriber to the latter’s mandatory public offering.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, GMA said its New Media Inc. has agreed to participate in the mandatory public offering of IP E-Games by subscribing up to P130 million.

E-Games and NMI are joint venture partners in X-Play Online Games Inc. The latter is the casual online games division of E-Games and is the local publisher of popular titles such as Audition Dance Battle, and music rhythm game, Band Master.

In addition, both companies also executed an option agreement whereby NMI was granted the option to sell its shareholdings in X-Play to E-Games. The option can be exercised for a period of one year from execution date.

“We are proud to have NMI join our company as a shareholder and strategic investor. With the number of Internet users reaching 30 million this year, and our dominance in the Internet cafe space, we believe there are tremendous synergies between consumer Internet and TV,” Enrique Gonzales, E-Games chief executive said. Gonzalez said the tie-up is expected to improve substantially the profitability and stability of the company.

Last year, E-Games expanded its online gaming user base through the development of its Internet cafe network. Since April, the company has closed the acquisition of Netopia, the largest and most prominent brand of i-cafes, and CyBr, another leading i-cafe brand that caters to the online gaming community.

The consolidation of these Internet cafes gives E-Games a total of about 130 branches located throughout the Philippines.

E-Games said it looks to quadruple this number in the next three to five years.