Zynga Acquires Social Game Developer Serious Business
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Zynga, the current social gaming behemoth, is using some of its money to do acquisitions: it has bought Serious Business, creators of social games on Facebook. SB, based in San Francisco, and backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners ($4 million in funding), was founded in early 2008 by two former Powerset engineers. It launched one of the first ever games on Facebook, Friends For Sale.
SEE ALSO: Zynga To Bring Its Games To Microsoft Properties
David adds: Zynga recently said it planned to bring some of its titles—such as the popular FarmVille game—to Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) properties, including MSN Games and, oddly enough, Windows Live Messenger. The move is seen as an expansion from social gaming to a more general online distribution strategy. But that doesn’t mean the company is looking to remake itself. As the acquisition of Serious Business suggests, Zynga is not about to give up its strong presence in the social net space.
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Zynga Acquires Social Game Developer Serious Business
SAN FRANCISCO—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Zynga, the leading social games provider, today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire Serious Business, creators of social games on Facebook. The deal will enhance Zynga’s mission to build world-class games that connect people to one another.
Serious Business will bring many of the innovations they have developed, to games played by Zynga’s 60 million daily active users. As part of the agreement, employees of Serious Business will join Zynga at the company’s headquarters in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
“We’re very excited to gain an experienced team that is committed to building social games,” said Vish Makhijani, chief operating officer at Zynga. “We are impressed with Serious Business’ entrepreneurial attitude, speed, and innovation in developing social games and welcome them to our team.”
About Zynga
Zynga has over 235 million monthly active users playing its games. These games include FarmVille, Zynga Poker, Mafia Wars, YoVille, Café World, FishVille and PetVille, which are available on Facebook, MySpace, MSN Games, Tagged, Bebo, Friendster, Yahoo! (NSDQ: YHOO) and the iPhone. For more information, please visit http://www.zynga.com and http://www.zynga.org.
Posted In: Entertainment, Games, Money, M&A & Venture Capital, Mergers & Acquisitions, Social Media, Companies, Adobe, Liberty Media, LinkedIn, TheStreet.com, Zynga, serious business
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