Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of Glu Mobile (GLUU) jumped 10% Thursday after the mobile games specialist announced support for Google's (GOOG 0.74%) (GOOGL 0.55%) new Android TV platform.
So what: That Glu Mobile, in particular, is moving so quickly to support Android TV is no surprise. Games have played an integral role in supporting Google Play's recent jaw-dropping growth, with more than 100 million new Google Play Games accounts opened during the last six months alone. As a result, Google announced at its annual developer conference earlier this week that Google Play Games would serve as one of the core pieces of Android TV.
This news is great for developers like Glu Mobile. Android TV represents a chance to expand its mobile ambitions to millions of living rooms around the world.
Now what: I'm still skeptical of the economics behind developers in the free-to-play game space, so I'm content to continue to watch Glu Mobile from the sidelines. But given its freshly expanded scope, I certainly can't blame the market for bidding up shares of Glu Mobile today. If Google's Android TV gains any sort of meaningful traction from here, it could be just what Glu Mobile needs to achieve sustained profitability over the long run.
