Plain Vanilla, the Icelandic start-up that rose to prominence a few years ago but shuttered its doors last April, has sold its popular trivia app QuizUp to mobile gaming company Glu Mobile for $7.5 million USD.
Plain Vanilla founder and director Þorsteinn Baldur Friðriksson said in a statement to the press that while it was difficult to see “our child go to the United States, we are excited to see what will happen in the future,” RÚV reports.
As reported, Plain Vanilla shuttered its doors last April, firing all 36 members of its staff. Kjarninn reports that while the company was hoping that the American television network NBC would make a game show out of QuizUp, ultimately the broadcast giant declined to move forward with further production.
Plain Vanilla was at one time a hot commodity. It received numerous accolades, and sought to expand rapidly, even reaching as far afield as China.
The news that NBC dropped the project came as a surprise to Plain Vanilla, as NBC had ordered 13 episodes and had begun production.
“I am grateful for having been able to work with unbelievably talented people on this journey,” Þorsteinn Baldur Friðriksson said in a statement to the press at the time. “I am excited to see what Plain Vanilla’s workers will take on in the future, and am completely convinced that more new companies will be created from this group, who have gained great experience in recent years.”
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