Sprint Buys Handmark to Boost its Advertising Services

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the date of Sprint’s Handmark acquisition. The deal was announced in May.

Wireless carrier Sprint has acquired mobile app developer Handmark.

Kansas City-based Handmark, which is located not far from Sprint’s Overland Park, Kansas, headquarters, is a mobile name that dates back to the Palm Pilot era where it shipped games and other software for that era’s handheld computers. Over time, the company expanded into services, such as Pocket Express.

More recently Handmark and its OneLouder Apps unit have expanded into creating advertising-related services. Sprint said that the Handmark deal will be used to bulk up Sprint’s Pinsight Media unit.

“As a long-time partner of Sprint, we’ve worked together on some of the mobile industry’s most successful initiatives,” Handmark founder and CEO Augie Grasis said in a statement. “Joining forces is a natural progression to our relationship and will help scale our mobile media business.”

Grasis will lead a new advisory board for Handmark and OneLouder, while day-to-day leadership of both units will shift to OneLouder president Evan Conway.