Mobile media firm Handmark has agreed to buy smartphone gaming studio Astraware, bringing the PDA game developer into the mobile phone space.

Formerly a PDA company, Handmark has transformed into a wireless company in response to the growing smartphone market. Its acquisition of Astraware will enable PDA game developers to continue working across a variety of handsets via Handmark's partnerships with leading manufacturers.

"We were looking for a way to expand and they were looking for a strategy to succeed in the wireless space as opposed to PDA space," said Douglas Edwards, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Handmark, Kansas City, MO.

The two companies have worked together for several years as Astraware built games for PDAs and other smart devices. The new agreement will make Astraware the dedicated Britain-based game studio for Handmark.

Courtesy of the deal, Astraware developers may be able to take advantage of Handmark's marketing and reach.

"The work that Astraware is doing will find an audience," Mr. Edwards said. "We have relationships with the license holders of top titles. Astraware is now plugged into the resources that Handmark has."

Handmark publishes mobile versions of classic board games such as Scrabble, Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit. It hopes that by combining its distribution and marketing machine with the Astraware titles, including Astraware Sudoku, Zap! 2016 and Astraware Solitaire, Handmark will continue to grow in the smartphone market.

The company is also adding new branded titles to its portfolio through partnerships with undisclosed players in the mobile gaming sphere.

Mr. Edwards said that consumers will have an easy way to get these games on their device, either from an operator-managed store or on the Web or on a portal such as Pocket Express.

"We take it to all the most likely places that people can discover it from a smartphone," Mr. Edwards said.

"We also have relationships with device manufacturers and, in some cases, they like to bundle applications with a device," he said.

Mr. Edwards said the Pocket Express experience is designed to be a mobile marketing platform. People use the portal each day to find out what's happening in the world and also download the latest games and ringtones.

"We provide a vehicle for marketers to present their message to viewers among all this other content the consumers looking for," Mr. Edwards said.