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Mobile-game publisher Glu Mobile Inc. closed up nearly 7% after a flat opening Thursday in its trading debut on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Shares in the San Mateo, Calif.-based company closed up 6.9% at $12.29, 79 cents above its opening price of $11.50.

"I think novel plays within telecom seem to have an audience (and) seem to have buyers," said Ben Holmes, publisher of MorningNotes.com, a research company that tracks IPOs. "As long as that continues, they will continue to bring these deals (public), that's for certain."

Glu Mobile, whose IPO was oversubscribed, sold 7.3 million shares at $11.50, the high end of its estimated price range of $10 to $12, set by underwriter Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

The company is backed in part by New Enterprise Associates, which now owns 16.9% following the offering; Scale Venture Partners, which has a 8.4% stake; Globespan Capital Partners, with 6.6%; and Sienna Associates III LLC, which now owns 5.5%.

Glu Mobile's debut continues the resurgence of technology sector IPOs this year. It marks the ninth technology stock to go public compared with six over the same period last year, according to datatracker Dealogic.

Glu Mobile generates most of its revenue from wireless carriers that market and distribute its games. The company has developed and published more than 100 games aimed at appealing to subscribers of 150 wireless carriers and other distributors.

Some of Glu Mobile's original games, based on its own intellectual property, include Blackjack Hustler, Brain Genius, Stranded and Super K.O. Boxing.

The company's games based on licensed intellectual property include Deer Hunter, Diner Dash, Monopoly, and World Series of Poker.

No single game contributed more than 10% of its revenue in 2005 or 2006, Glu Mobile said in its prospectus.

The prospectus also said the company was one of the top three mobile game publishers in the fourth quarter in terms of mobile game market share in North America, as measured by market research firm NPD Group Inc.

Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel Corp., Cingular Wireless and T-Mobile USA are among Glu Mobile's largest wireless carrier customers in the U.S.

Branded content owners, such as Atari, Celador and Fox also provide Glu Mobile with brands and other intellectual property on which the company has based mobile games.

Formed six years ago, Glu Mobile has incurred significant losses since inception, including a net loss of $12.3 million in 2006, an improvement over its $17.9 million loss in the previous year.

Sales, however, jumped to $46.2 million in 2006, up from $25.6 million in 2005.

As of Dec. 31, 2006, Glu Mobile had an accumulated deficit of $46 million.

While the company's market share is strong, the company warned that the landscape is competitive.

Glu Mobile's main competitors include Digital Chocolate, Electronic Arts Inc., Gameloft, Hands-On Mobile, I-play, Namco and THQ Inc. Electronic Arts has the largest market share of any company in the mobile games market.

Down the track, Glu Mobile's competitors could also include major media companies and traditional video game publishers, among others.

In addition, Glu Mobile said if carriers enter the mobile game market as publishers, they could refuse to distribute some of its games or deny access to their networks.

Glu Mobile plans to use almost $11 million of the net proceeds of the IPO to repay a loan to Pinnacle Ventures.

The remaining proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, including sales and marketing.

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