Zynga

Joseph Menn Zynga’s Las Vegas issue

July 2, 2011 12:29 am by Joseph Menn

As an unusual sort of company, Zynga comes with an unusual set of warning labels, including its dependence “on a small percentage of our players for nearly all of our revenue”, as the prospectus filed on Friday puts it. That raises an interesting and still unanswered set of questions. Read more

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Posted in Games, Internet, Security, Tech |

Zynga: the Facebook effect

July 2, 2011 12:27 am by FT

Much has been made of Zynga’s heavy dependence on Facebook, from which it draws the vast majority of its users. For would-be investors in the games company’s hotly anticipated IPO, here’s one more thing to worry about: thanks to recent changes in Facebook’s practices, it is hard to hard to assess what sort of underlying growth trajectory Zynga is on. Read more

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Posted in Games, Internet, Tech, Tech Finance |

Facebook to unveil iPad app, reports say

June 17, 2011 5:44 am by Maryam Nabi

Tech news from around the web:

Facebook is gearing up to launch an official iPad app, according to the New York Times. The app has been in production for almost a year and is in the final stages of testing, the report says. Read more

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Posted in Digital media, Games, Internet, Mobile, Tech |

Tim Bradshaw Wooga raises $24m to take on Zynga

May 31, 2011 7:59 pm by Tim Bradshaw

Wooga, a top-five Facebook app developer and one of the social-gaming companies chasing Zynga’s huge lead, has raised $24m in a funding round that will accelerate development of new games. Read more

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Posted in Digital media, Europe, Games, Internet, Social |

Chris Nuttall Celebrity chef cooks up social game

May 19, 2011 11:00 pm by Chris Nuttall

It was only a matter of time before celebrities sought to extend their personal brands established on Twitter and Facebook to other social arenas such as games, which are capturing as much attention as the stars themselves.
Zynga has been featuring music from Lady Gaga’s latest album inside FarmVille this month in a deal with the singer and now Electronic Arts has announced celebrity chef Jamie Oliver will feature in its own Facebook game, Restaurant City. Read more

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Posted in Games |

Further reading: Expedia set to spin off TripAdvisor and Google considers oversight

April 8, 2011 12:47 pm by Phill Tutt

Tech news from around the web:

  • Online travel site Expedia is planning to spin off TripAdvisor, in a deal that could value the unit at as much as $4bn, the Wall Street Journal reports. Dara Khosrowshahi, Expedia chief executive,  said the recommendation and travel media site had grown to a point that it was now ready to be spun off into a pure-play media company.

 Read more

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Posted in Commerce, Digital media, Games, Internet, Mobile, Software, Tech |

Further reading: Zynga nears $10bn valuation and concern over Apple’s subs service

February 18, 2011 10:32 am by Phill Tutt

Tech news from around the web:

  • Zynga, the company behind online games FarmVille and CityVille, is in talks on an investment that would value it at nearly $10bn and could pave the way for an initial public offering next year, the New York Times’ DealBook reports. The company is in discussion  with T. Rowe Price and Fidelity Investments, among other investors, for a round of financing near $500m.

 Read more

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Posted in Commerce, Games, Internet, Social, Tech |

Further reading: Twitter’s ad revenue and the Silicon Valley reshuffle

January 24, 2011 10:37 am by Phill Tutt

Tech news from around the web:

  • Twitter is set to more than triple its advertising revenue to $150m this year as more companies use it to spread marketing messages, according to Bloomberg, with ad sales set to hit $250m by 2012.
  • In a move that could let its users avoid having their online actions monitored, Mozilla Corp is planning to add a “do-not-track” feature to its Firefox browser, the Wall Street Journal reports. The announcement would make Firefox the first Web browser to heed the Federal Trade Commission’s call for the development of a do-not-track system.

 Read more

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Posted in Games, Security, Social, Tech, Telecoms |

Chris Nuttall Zynga-Playdom mob wars settled by Disney

November 24, 2010 6:28 am by Chris Nuttall

The new frontier of social gaming has seemed like the Wild West at times, with developers playing fast and loose in imitating each other’s successful concepts, from FarmTown to Farmville and Mafia Wars to Mobsters.

But there are signs the industry is maturing as bigger players move in, with Disney reaching a settlement with Zynga on Tuesday over its legal dispute with Playdom. Read more

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Posted in Games |

David Gelles Zynga takes $150m from Softbank (No mention of Google)

July 29, 2010 7:49 am by David Gelles

How do you say “Farmville” in Japanese?

Zynga, maker of the popular social game, wants to find out.

To do so, the San Francisco company is entering into a joint venture with Softbank to develop and distribute games in Japan. As part of the deal, Softbank is investing $150m in Zynga, and will help launch the new business unit, Zynga Japan, in Tokyo.

Details of the partnership are scarce, but it will be interesting to see how Zynga’s games go over in Japan, a difficult market for foreign companies to crack. The deal also brings social gaming, which originated in Asian markets, full circle.  Read more

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Posted in Tech |
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