It’s a deal a month for Zynga, which announced its fourth acquisition in as many months today. They’ve acquired Boston-based Conduit Labs.
Conduit Labs has raised $8.5 million in venture capital from Charles River Ventures and Prism VentureWorks. The size of the deal isn’t being disclosed, so we don’t know how well the investors did. Their recent acquisition of Challenge Games wasn’t much of a payday for investors, we heard. They also acquired XPD Media back in May, and Unoh earlier this month.
Press release below:
ZYNGA ACQUIRES CONDUIT LABS
SAN FRANCISCO – Aug. 17, 2010 – Zynga today announced it has acquired Boston-based social games company Conduit Labs. Effective immediately, the Conduit Labs office will become Zynga Boston, a new game studio focused on new product development. Today’s announcement expands Zynga’s studio operations adding to locations already in San Francisco, Austin, Baltimore, Bangalore, Beijing and Los Angeles. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Conduit Labs’ CEO, Nabeel Hyatt, will become head of the new Boston studio. The Conduit Labs team will be immediately integrated into Zynga’s workforce. Conduit Labs, founded in 2007 and funded by Charles River Ventures and Prism VentureWorks, has developed several free-to-play social games for the web.
“Boston is an epicenter for technology and has a strong talent market, making it an ideal location for us to expand operations,” said Mike Verdu, senior vice president of games at Zynga. “As one of the most prominent social game companies in Boston, the Conduit team shares a similar culture and drive with Zynga, and together we anticipate great successes from our new studio.”
Today’s acquisition, along with the recently announced joint venture with SoftBank for the launch of Zynga Japan, continues to extend the company’s footprint worldwide, creating more opportunities for Zynga to connect the world through games.
About Zynga
Zynga is the world’s largest social game developer. More than 215 million monthly active users play its games. Zynga’s games include FarmVille, Treasure Isle, Zynga Poker, Mafia Wars, YoVille, Café World, FishVille, PetVille and FrontierVille. Zynga games are available on Facebook, MySpace and the iPhone. Through Zynga.org, Zynga players have raised more than $3 million for world social causes. Zynga is headquartered in San Francisco. For more information, visit www.Zynga.com or www.Zynga.org.