Babel bought by outsourcing giant Quatrro

QA, localisation and testing firm Babel Media been acquired by Indian outsourcing firm Quatrro.

The move sees Babel – which already boasts 500 staff across offices in Brighton, Los Angeles, Montreal and New Delhi – become part of a bigger operation that specialises in business process outsourcing.

“Providing scalable resources via a global delivery model, whilst maintaining flexibility for today’s top publishers and developers is crucial,” said Raman Roy, CEO, founder and chairman of Quatrro.

“We’re delighted to be working with the Babel team, and the joint capabilities of our new partnership will provide Babel a unique platform to become a true world leader in the industry.”

The acquisition was in part funded by investment group DE Shaw.

Algy Williams, co-founder and forner MD of Babel, will become a non-executive director at the firm, while former EA vet Richard Leinfellner (pictured above) will take over as CEO.

Leinfellner has been an EA VP and EP for the past 11 years, overseeing EA’s European outsourcing strategy.

“I am absolutely delighted that Richard is joining us,” said Williams in a statement issued to Develop.

“He shares our vision of a ‘Hollywood style’ distributed development model and has a unique, publisher-focused insight into how to make this happen. This transaction with Quatrro and the D. E. Shaw group means business as usual at Babel, but we’ll now have far greater resources to service our clients.”

Babel’s statement adds that the firm will "retain its branding and exclusive focus on games and interactive entertainment" with "major investment planned across Babel’s existing facilities in North America, Europe and India and simultaneously plans are being drawn up to expand capabilities to South East Asia and Eastern Europe".

According to a report in the Indian press, the buy was worth over $30m, although it quotes anonymous ‘experts’ with the estimation.

The report added that Quatrro is expected to make more acquisitions in the services and outsourcing space (although not necessarily for games) – buying Babel is its sixth acquisition, and it plans to tie-up with a US-based company ‘soon’.