A little over a year ago Zynga sued rival game startup Playdom for, among other things, misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of contract, breach of the duty of loyalty, tortious interference with contracts, tortious interference with existing and prospective economic advantage and unfair competition. The defendants included four ex-Zynga, then Playdom employees as well.
It’s been a fairly dramatic year of legal maneuvers. The day Zynga filed the lawsuit a judge issued a temporary restraining order against Playdom that prohibited Playdom from using any Zynga data. In March a different judge issued a preliminary injunction against Playdom that prohibited them from releasing a specific game (whatever game that was has been kept confidential). And then in August the big slap down against a former Zynga employee who had been found to have acted inappropriately. → Read More
Last fall Zynga sued rival gaming developer Playdom (recently acquired by Disney) for an array of issues including misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of contract, and breach of the duty of loyalty.
In short Zynga accused Playdom of stealing its confidential ‘Zynga Playbook‘.
The case continues, but the drama has reached its peak. The court today held one former Zynga and Playdom employee, Raymond Holmes, in contempt and sentenced him to ten days in county jail and a $4,000 fine. Fortunately for Holmes, Judge Mark Pierce then suspended the sentence. That means Holmes won’t do the time unless he continues to, well, piss off Judge Pierce. The full order is embedded below. → Read More
Perhaps you’ve heard: social games maker Playdom was acquired by Disney a few days ago for a deal potentially worth north of $750 million. Playdom CEO John Pleasants took the stage today at our Social Currency CrunchUp in Palo Alto, to talk a bit about the deal and the future.
Pleasants says that he’s not exactly sure what his title at Disney will be yet, but he thinks he’ll be the General Manager of Playdom. He’s also not sure if Tapulous (another gaming company just acquired by Disney) will be under his department, but he doesn’t think so. And he made sure to clarify that the deal was for $563.2 million plus an earn-out of up to $200 million — so he’s not super super super rich, he’s just super super rich. → Read More
Disney has acquired social gaming startup Playdom, confirming our story from last week. The price – $563.2 million plus an earn-out of up to $200 million.
Playdom’s last round of financing valued the company at $345 million, and the company has raised a total of around $76 million.
Press release is below: → Read More
Disney and social gaming startup Playdom are in “very” late stage acquisition discussions, we’ve heard from, oh, about seven independent sources, including sources close to Playdom, over the last several days. Internally the two parties have referred to the deal as “Project Platinum” based on due diligence documents we’ve reviewed.
Some sources have said the deal is signed and in the closing process. Others say it hasn’t been signed yet and could still unravel.
Disney is already an investor in Playdom – last month we reported that Disney’s Steamboat Ventures participated in a new injection of $33 million into the company. Playdom has raised a total of $76 million, and the most recent valuation of the company was around $345 million. → Read More
A couple of weeks ago, game developer and Zynga rival Playdom continued its shopping spree just after raising $33 million in funding, acquiring social gaming startup Hive7.
What Playdom spent to buy the True Ventures-backed company wasn’t disclosed, but thanks to an SEC filing we now know that it concerned a mixture of cash and stock.
The exact amount Playdom paid for Hive7 in cash remains unknown, but the SEC filing reveals the stock part of the equation: $851,498 worth of shares were issued to help pay for the startup. → Read More
Fresh off a $33 million funding round, Playdom is making its fifth acquisition of the year today. The gaming giant is buying social gaming startup Hive7. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Hive7, which is backed by True Ventures and was founded in 2005, develops social games for Facebook and MySpace. The startup is best known for its flagship game, Knighthood, which combines combat and diplomacy in a medieval setting. Other titles include Youtopia, Kick-Off, and Sindicate. Hive 7′s developers and team have already joined Playdom’s Mountain View offices. → Read More
Late last year we broke the news that social gaming startup Playdom closed a big round of funding at quite a healthy valuation: $43 million on a $260 million pre-money valuation. That’s not bad for a first round of financing.
But the march of the social gaming giants continues. Zynga raised another $150 million earlier this month. And now Playdom is set to announce an additional $33 million in funding – bringing their total to $76 million. This new money was added in a second closing of the Series A round at that same $260 million pre-money valuation, the company tells me.
Steamboat Ventures, Disney’s venture arm, is part of this round, and they generally only make investments of strategic interest to the parent company. Bessemer Venture Partners and New World Ventures also invested. → Read More
Playdom, the Silicon Valley-based social games developer, has announced its intention to try and crack Europe.
It’s planning an aggressive roll out across the Atlantic, aiming to create localised versions – French, Italian, German and Spanish – of its top titles, which include Mobsters, Tiki Resort and Big City Life, by the end of this year. The company’s games largely target Facebook and MySpace, although it also has offerings for iPhone and Hi5, among other platforms.
The first of Playdom’s games to be available fully localised will be Bola, a Facebook football game which brings arcade-style football to the popular social network. Already available as a beta, analytics firm Appdata lists it as the 41st most popular application on Facebook, says the company. → Read More
Playdom is continuing its shopping spree of game developers. The gaming giant is acquiring social game publisher Acclaim Games today. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Acclaim has built a name for itself in the casual and MMORPG gaming space. The company also has launched RockFree, a Facebook guitar game, in March 2010, which now has tens of thousands of daily active users. Acclaim is currently developing another Facebook game due to launch this summer. → Read More
Last November, popular social game developer Playdom followed up its $43 million funding round with news that it had acquired two smaller game developers, Green Patch and Trippert Labs. Green Patch is best known for its game Lil’ Green Patch, a gardening simulator that attracted users by promising to contribute to the Nature Conservancy. And now, less than six months after acquiring the game, Playdom is killing off Lil Green Patch and a handful of other games that fall under the Green Patch brand, like Lil Eco Racer and Lil Blue Cove. The lone survivor will be Farmville competitor Lil Farm Life, which has around 3.4 million monthly active users. → Read More
Playdom is continuing its shopping spree today with the acquisition of social game developer Merscom. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
It appears that the acquisition is based around talent and Merscom’s branded games business. Playdom says that it plans to leverage Merscom’s expertise in working with IP owners as the gaming giant moves to develop partnerships with “powerful global brands.” Founded 16 years ago, Merscom has produced over 250 games in total and over 30 casual games for such brands as Lifetime Networks, Paramount and Starz Entertainment and is currently developing games for Sea World, Purina, National Geographic and NBC Universal. → Read More
Social gaming company Playdom has hired David Sobeski, a former executive at Yahoo and Microsoft, as Chief Technology Officer of the company.
Sobeski most recently served as a senior vice president at Yahoo, in charge of developing the company’s Open Strategy and Data platform as well as driving product and innovation strategy. Prior to joining to Yahoo, Sobeski was a general manager at Microsoft and worked on a variety of projects, from user experience of Windows Vista, to mobility on the Microsoft Exchange Server. → Read More
Argentinian social gaming company MetroGames, has just raised $5 million in series A funding from game developer Playdom. According to a release, the investment will be used to expand MetroGames’ development of games and its social gaming platform. Playdom’s CEO, John Pleasants will join MetroGames’ board.
MetroGames has over 30 games on both Facebook and its own standalone social gaming site. In the release, Pleasants said that he believes that the company will become a “big player in the social gaming market.” → Read More
Social gaming company Playdom has acquired Facebook game developer Offbeat Creations. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Offbeat Creations has developed several popular apps on Facebook including Super Farkle. The acquisition will obviously boost Playdom’s presence on Facebook. The gaming company has largely been known as dominant on social network MySpace. Playdom’s lineup of games included Sorority Life, Mobsters 2, Lil Farm Life, Tiki Farm, Tiki Resort, Wild Ones and Poker Palace. → Read More
It’s only a day after one of the big three social game developers, Playfish, announced a $400 million acquisition.
And today we’ve confirmed that another one, Playdom, has done its own massive deal: $43 million on a $260 million pre-money valuation. New Enterprise Associates, Rick Thompson, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Norwest Venture Partners invested in the round.
This is Playdom’s first outside round of funding.
Unlike Zynga and Playfish, who focus on Facebook, Playdom’s is the big player on MySpace. Their Mob Wars game has 14 million or so users there, and the company is likely pulling in $60 million or more in reveune. A couple of weeks ago we compared the big three social gaming companies as a prelude to our Scamville posts.
Playdom has 28 million monthly game users. 60% of traffic is from MySpace v. 40% from Facebook. They have twelve MySpace apps and 6 Facebook Apps. → Read More
So much for the first generation of big Facebook/MySpace social application startups. Slide and RockYou both got huge valuations in venture rounds. But a new generation of application developers has taken center stage and are racking up big revenues and their own eye popping valuations: Zynga, Playfish and Playdom.
All three own popular social games on Facebook and MySpace. Zynga’s Farmville has 61 million monthly users. Playfish’s Pet Society has 21 million monthly users on Facebook. And Playdom has 16+ million monthly users of Mobsters on MySpace and Facebook Combined.
All three companies are getting a ton of press and investor attention. Zynga wants to go public next year. Playfish probably already got bought by EA for $400 million or more. And Playdom probably raised an unannounced big chunk of venture capital over the summer.
These three companies may be generating as much as $300 million annually on sales of virtual goods. Need a shotgun to do that next job on Mobsters? No problem. Pay with a credit card, paypal, or your mobile phone and it’s all yours. And people are obviously very willing to buy these virtual goods. Nothing new there.
The goal of all of these games is to get to a higher level, and generally have more fun growing things or killing things faster than your friends. Get addicted to the free version, then start spending to move things along more quickly. Once people are committed, it’s easy to get them to pay. You can read all about it on Business Week.
Except Business Week didn’t mention the dark side of the business at all. → Read More
It’s a day late, but social game site (and Zynga-antagonizer) Playdom has finally responded to our request for comment on the lawsuit and temporary restraining order they got hit with earlier this week (all the legal documents are here).
The statement, emailed to us earlier today, is short and sweet and contains very little information at all:
This lawsuit comes as no surprise given Zynga’s penchant for litigation. We do not believe in using unnecessary litigation as a business strategy, and we are troubled to see an industry as bright and promising as ours weighed down by such tactics.
We have no interest in Zynga’s “Playbook” or “secret sauce.” Our strength comes from our 111 talented people, and we will defend ourselves vigorously against this distraction.
The lawsuit stems from seven former-Zynga, now-Playdom employees who may or may not have taken a few proprietary documents with them to their new jobs. Among the documents Playdom is accused of stealing is the fast-becoming-legendary/mythical “Zynga Playbook”: “The Zynga Playbook is literally the recipe book that contains Zynga’s “secret sauce,” and its contents would be invaluable to a competitor like Playdom,” says Zynga in the lawsuit. → Read More
