There’s regular old junk mail, and then there’s a Publishers Clearing Housesweepstakes offer.

The company behind the doorbell-ringing Prize Patrol and glitzy envelopes teasing that “You May Have Already Won” has been around for more than 50 years, using the lure of big prizes as a way to market magazine subscriptions and other consumer goods.

It turns out that Publishers Clearing House is not just banking on snail mail, however. Today, the privately held New York-based company says it’s acquiring LiveToWin, a Boston-based mobile development shop behind a smartphone app of the same name.

LiveToWin has a similar approach to business, letting users increase their odds of winning prizes — gift cards, TVs, household appliances — by taking consumer surveys and seeing ads for mobile apps. LiveToWin was a subsidiary of Online Convergence Corp., a self-described “Internet holding company.”

Publishers Clearing House has been focusing on digital expansion for several years, including the 2011 acquisition of Portland, ME-based mobile marketing company Liquid Wireless. Earlier this year, Publishers Clearing House acquired advertising tech startup Plethora Mobile.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Neither company was available for comment, so we also don’t know whether the acquisition was sealed with an oversized novelty check.

From: betaboston.com