Glu Mobile Makes CEO Move, Buys Fashion-game Company

Glu Mobile Inc. said Thursday that Chief Executive Niccolo de Masi would transition to executive chairman and pass the CEO job to Nick Earl, a former executive at Kabam and Electronic Arts Inc. who has served as president of Glu's studios for the past year. The mobile-game maker also announced a much wider-than-expected loss for the third quarter and the acquisition of a controlling interest in Crowdstar, which makes a popular mobile game called "Covet Fashion." Glu reported a loss of $43.7 million, or 33 cents a share, on sales of $51.4 million. Analysts polled by FactSet expected a loss of 9 cents a share on sales of $50.9 million. De Masi noted royalty-impairment charges of $29.8 million for underperforming games as a cause of the miss. Glu has struggled to follow up a big hit, a mobile game based on celebrity Kim Kardashian, and revenues declined 18.8% year over year. The stock added about 3% in late trading Thursday.