Plymouth-based Destineer last week said it had closed on a deal to buy Atomic Games, based in Houston. Terms were not disclosed. All nine Atomic Games employees will join Destineer's 50-person staff, said spokesman Steve Charbonneau.

The two companies had worked together for some time; Destineer is the publisher of Close Combat: First to Fight and Close Combat: Red Phoenix, both part of the long-running Close Combat series launched and developed by Atomic Games. Red Phoenix, a real-time strategy game set in the midst of a 2007 Korean conflict, is scheduled to debut in 2006.

Charbonneau said the acquisition would give Destineer license to use the Close Combat brand, and provide access to Atomic Games' relationships with the military.

"They've got a lot of expertise in the subject matter," he said. As the gaming market has evolved, customers have demanded ever-more-realistic scenarios and gameplay, so strong ties with the military count for a lot.

The acquisition is the latest deal for Destineer, which was founded in 2001 by Tamte, who founded the games company MacSoft before going to work as an executive for Apple Computer and Bungie Software Products.

After Bungie was bought by Microsoft Corp., he returned to the Twin Cities to start his own company. In 2003, Destineer bought MacSoft, though the company makes games for Microsoft's Xbox and PC as well as the Mac.

Data storage firm goes Dutch
So what's Compellent Technologies Inc. going to do with the $15 million it closed on last month? Some of those dollars are going to be converted to Dutch guilders.

The Eden Prairie startup, which sells a data-storage system for mid-sized businesses, last month expanded its European operations with an office in Amsterdam. The office has a small sales and tech-support team (about three people) and Compellent is looking to hire a storage architect to serve that region, a spokesman said.

Compellent, which debuted its first storage system in 2004, claims about 120 customers so far, but it does little selling itself. Instead, the company has relied on about 60 "channel partners" and resellers. That will be the plan in Amsterdam, as well, the spokesman said.

SWAT expands software model
SWAT Solutions Inc., a consulting firm that made its mark performing automated testing services for software developers, is expanding its model to encompass the broader "software quality" market.

SWAT Vice President John Fox said the shift would let the company become more involved in "early and mid-stage software development, instead of just at the late stage, which is where testing takes place."

SWAT invested in a new lab to help evaluate new software as it's developed, and expects to boost hiring to accommodate broader services.

Fox said SWAT has benefited from the increased FDA regulation of software in medical implants, as several of its customers are medical technology firms.