US mobile games publisher Hands-On Mobile has laid off an undisclosed number of staff, according to a report on mocoNews.

CEO David White insists that the layoffs aren't a sign that the company is in trouble, but more a case of cutting jobs no longer needed since the company sold off its non-US divisions.

"It takes awhile to unwind some of the support functions to run international operations," he tells the site. "We've been running heavy for awhile."

Hands-On's European arm span off as a separate company, Connect2Media, while its Korean studio was sold to EA Mobile – both earlier this year.

However, White says the publisher has grown its market share and revenues in the US – thanks presumably to the barnstorming success of its Guitar Hero mobile games.

He also says the sales have provided Hands-On with "a load of cash" to ride out the current economic slump, and even potentially to buy other mobile games companies.

"There's a lot of distressed assets right now, and a lot of folks who are short on cash," he says. "We are buyers under the right set of facts and circumstances, keeping an ear to the ground."