10. RIM acquires Scoreloop
Due to wider concerns about RIM's underlining business, its surprisingly circa 70 million acquisition of German mobile social gaming network Scoreloop in June hasn't yet resulted in much of substance.
The idea, however, is to integrate the powerful BlackBerry Messenger service into the gaming platform, enabling a much stronger set of social interactions between friends, as well as opening up new discovery channels.
Still, whether this vision sees fulfillment in 2012 will rely on RIM pulling out of what many commentators now see as its death spiral.
9. GetJar closes $25 million funding round
Following on from its exclusive launch of the Android version of Angry Birds in 2010, free and open app store GetJar demonstrated its growing power in the industry, raising a tasty $25 million C investment round.
It also gained a new investor in the form of Tiger Global Management, which alongside previous investor Accel Partners, funded the expansion.
GetJar went on to exclusively launch the Android version of Cut the Rope; ending the year with its GetJar Gold program, which daily gives away paid Android apps and games for free.
8. Glu Mobile acquires Griptonite and Blammo
Given that CEO Niccolo de Masi had spent the majority of his tenure reducing the in-transition publisher's headcount, the decision to double it in one fell swoop was something of a surprise - especially as it pushed the company's predicted breakeven back to early 2013.
Still, given that Blammo Games was set up by the team behind Capcom's Smurfs' Village, and Griptonite Games is a recognised handheld developer with $10 million cash in the bank, suggests the deal isn't without logic.
Nevertheless, Glu shareholders will be keenly looking forward to the first games due from the pair, due starting from the summer of 2012.
7. Social studio Funzio raises $20 million
There have been plenty of large VC investments into mobile gaming during 2011: $18 million to PapayaMobile; $18 million to TinyCo; $23 million to CrowdStar.
The one that has had the most impact, however, is the $20 million raised by Funzio, from IDG Capital Partners (China) and IDG Ventures (US).
Already a player on Facebook games, towards the end of the year, it released City and Modern War, both of which hit 1 million downloads within their first weeks, also building out its industry profile, stealing Jamil Moledina from EA Partners to serve as its VP of business development.
6. Rovio signs SwaddleDesigns deal to bring Angry Birds to babyware
Of all the deals signed by the Finnish
The question in 2012 will be when does it hit saturation point - at least with its current stable of game character.
5. GREE buys OpenFeint for $104 million
In many ways, GREE's purchase of OpenFeint mirrored DeNA's purchase of ngmoco six months previous - a Japanese social mobile gaming network spending large to acquire a similar US-based platform.
The strategies of the two since have been very different, however, with DeNA embarking on a spending spree, picking up numerous studios during 2011, and launching region-specific versions of its Mobage portal.
GREE has gone for a more organic approach, building up its US office with an aggressive hiring policy, while the majority of content deals have been managed through its Japan HQ.
We await more details about its 'single sign-on, fully borderless social platform across iOS and Android' in 2012.
4. EA buys PopCap for a potential $1.35 billion
Given that EA was already heavily involved in its mobile and casual games business as a distributor, it wasn't a massive surprise it won the race to acquire PopCop.
What was surprising, however, was the price - approximately $650 million cash plus $100 million in EA shares, plus an earn out peaking at $550 million for EBIT over two years of $343 million - as well as beating out the likes of Zynga in the process.
We'll next see how well the deal is playing out when EA reveals its Q3 financials for the Holiday season in early February.
3. Google buys Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion
The biggest surprise of the year was Google's decision to get into the hardware business, at least at arm's length.
Paying over 63 percent on Motorola's closing stock price, it was certainly a sizeable deal, and while its short term impact has been to unsettle existing Android licensees such as Samsung, it likely makes sense, even as a defensive move to keep Motorola in play as a key Android vendor.
No doubt, we'll learn more when Google's rumoured Motorola-designed Nexus tablet is released in mid-2012.
2. Apple and Samsung fall out
Not a deal, but a deal falling part, Apple's decision to sue a key component partner resulted in a bonanza for lawyers from Australia and Korea to Japan, Europe and America.
But despite all the money spent, suits and counter-suits, neither side managed to disrupt the other, let alone landing a knock-out blow.
Indeed, it could be argued it was Apple which shot itself in the foot, as its decision to release iPhone 4S instead of iPhone 5 was likely due to problems replacing Samsung's expertise within its production process.
Still, in terms of hardware units shipped, in 2011 both companies had their best years ever.
1. Nokia and Microsoft announce strategic smartphone partnership
At the time, Nokia's decision to drop its aging Symbian and its nascent MeeGo operating systems for Microsoft's Windows Phone was viewed as something of a Trojan Horse operation from new CEO Stephen Elop (ex-Microsoft).
But in the 12 months since, increasing fragmentation of Android, not to mention Google's Motorola deal, have cast the deal in a very different light.
Still, it will likely take until the release of Windows 8 - an OS that will unify smartphone, tablet and PC operations, and provide native development features - later in 2012 that will provide the true test.
