THE BLOG
LIFE & CAREER
The early years…
Baumgartner grew up in Salzburg/Austria, a small but culturally significant city in the heart of Europe. He developed an interest in the creative use of computers during his early years. After experimenting with various activities such as coding Assembler or creating Tracker music, he quickly found his love for graphic design and visual aesthetics. This manifested in the form of the creation of logos and graphics for the so called »Demo/Cracker scene« in Europe from the age of 15 onwards.
After completing the mandatory military service in Vienna/Austria, Baumgartner began his studies in Sociology and Applied Informatics. Unsatisfied with the rigid and unprogressive curriculum, he quickly focused on finding an alternative to the traditional tertiary education. By this time, a new form of University arose in Austria: Universities of applied sciences, or »Fachhochschulen« in German.
Baumgartner applied immediately when a branch called »MultiMediaArt« was announced. He was accepted as #2 of 50 among ~2000 applicants, completed multiple internships in Berlin and Munich and graduated with the thesis »Theoretical fundamentals of the GUI«.
Early business, visions and work…
By that time, the first Internet and interactive entertainment bubble was still in full swing in Austria – and as Baumgartner had already worked for many companies already during his studies, he took his chances and founded »Eyemersive«, a studio for graphical services in the video game and film/TV area.
He worked as 2D/3D artist, art director, creative director and visiting lecturer for various customers, mostly in the Salzburg-Munich area. Projects included: Welt der Wunder/History/Ice Planet/Coca Cola for Pro7/H5B5; Vodaphone Music; Terra Film Produktion – The Red Phone; Hirslanden Medical; Hutchinson/Drei; Europrix Multimedia; et al. Visiting lecturer for motion graphics and design at the FH Salzburg.
In 2002, Baumgartner estimated that the crash of the US Dot Com bubble would also affect the Austrian Internet ecosystem sooner or later in a negative way. Because of this and also because the film/TV business seemed to be a less interesting choice than he initially thought, a call from a headhunter aroused his interest. A multinational group of companies called »Atronic International (today IGT)« was interested in meeting him. After some initial scepticism – the company was doing business in a very different area – Baumgartner accepted the invitation to visit Graz/Austria to see what they had to offer.
Vegas baby!
Negotiations went well, so Baumgartner moved from Salzburg to Graz in 2002 and started working for Atronic International, producing games for all global Casino markets. In 2005, he moved to the US to head Atronic’s American game design studio. In 2008, after having produced some of Atronic’s most successful games, Baumgartner left the company and his job as »Global Manager Core Game Production« to look for new challenges.
Baumgartner’s good sense for chances got him on the right track. After seeing the revolutionary possibilities of the first iPhone, he decided to start another company: »Cervo«. This time to produce small computer programs nowadays widely known as »apps«, exclusively for Apple’s new platform iPhone OS (now called iOS).
The black swan…
In 2008, he hired Christian Zehetner as a programmer, who went on to become a full business partner and integral part of the company; and designed »ViDICTO+«, an innovative audio-visiual, context sensitive dictionary. This first app was a huge hit. It topped the according iPhone OS charts and in 2010, the American translation giant »Franklin Electronic Publishers« acquired the app, including all global rights. With this success, Cervo was transformed into Cervo Media. A new business sector was realized in the form of 3rd party developments, mainly for the Pharmaceutical sector.
In 2011, the casual game app »Crazy Rings« was released and won several prizes, awards and was chosen by Apple to be displayed in German Apple stores on the iPad. David Jaffe, creator of God of War and Carmageddon called the game “one of the best 10 games in 2011“. Crazy Rings was the only mobile title he listed in his personal Top 10. So everything was going great, but it was not until early 2012 that a black swan flew over Cervo Media and changed everything.
Baumgartner had the idea to use his old casino knowledge to create a new kind of app – a social casino game where the player cannot win anything of value but just appreciation and new game content. The app »Pharaoh’s Way« was born and hit the market like a bomb. Within mere weeks, the game became one of the top grossing apps globally. It was cloned countless times by eastern and western, small and large companies; appeared on Australian national television as an example of how in-app purchases make up a completely new form of business and it was (and possibly still is) the only Austrian app that appeared in the US top grossing App Store charts for quite some time.Baumgartner and Zehetner were blown away by the success. It was time for the next step.
In 2013, after turning Cervo Media into a multi-million dollar business, Baumgartner and Zehetner sold Cervo Media to Internet gaming giant »Greentube« for an undisclosed sum, agreeing on a 3 year management buy-out. 2 additional apps, »Pharaoh’s Fire« and »Golden Match«* had been created during this time. Baumgartner left Cervo Media on the 31st of December, 2015. His legacy is strong. Until 2016, Baumgartners visions have been played by more than 60 million people all around the globe.
Oops, we did it again…
In summer 2016, Baumgartner founded the new start-up »Supertreat« together with long-time business partner Christian Zehetner and industry veterans Andreas Oberdorfer and Andreas Schörkhuber. Within a year, they created a new game called »Solitaire – Grand Harvest« – and it was a success. A sensational one. The game hit the grossing charts all around the world in less than a year after its soft-launch.
Because of this, the app showed up on the M&A radar of some of the largest entities in the business. Supertreat was flooded with acquisition requests – and some where to good to be true… So earlier than everyone expected, Baumgartner and Zehetner were back in negotiating contracts. After nearly 10 exhausting months, the multi-national entity Playtika, which was just acquired itself by a Chineses consortium for 4.4 billion USD, was the new owner of “Solitaire – Grand Harvest”.
More to come soon…