Bertelsmann buys Smashing Ideas for Random House in apps move

Hoping its subsidiaries will make beautiful book-apps together.

Bertelsmann AG has acquired digital media agency Smashing Ideas for its Random House publishing division, and mobile apps are one of the key reasons for the deal.

The company hasn't revealed how much it paid for the company, which will continue to run independently out of its Seattle HQ and UK office. While Smashing Ideas works across games, web and interactive TV, it's the company's new ePublishing unit that has most relevance to its new home.

Since last year, Random House and Smashing Ideas have been working on mobile apps based on books, with two released so far - Wild About Books and Pat The Bunny (pictured). Now that partnership is entirely in-house.

"Bertelsmann, Random House, and Smashing Ideas are a great fit creatively and culturally, as our recently begun partnership has demonstrated to us," says Random House chairman and CEO Markus Dohle.

"We are driven to create value for authors, brands, and clients, and the opportunity to do so together, through broad-based digital development of innovative and interactive engagement with consumers and readers, is enormously appealing to us."