Raja Jasti’s Blog - Renaissance Thinking

August 30, 2010

Google Buys SocialDeck

Filed under: Entertainment, Mobile — Tags: , — Raja @ 11:38 am

InsideSocialGaming reports that Google acquires mobile social game developer SocialDeck.

In its latest social acquisition, Google has bought mobile game developer SocialDeck, according to a letter posted by the company.

SocialDeck’s games were downloaded about a million times in 2009. Its games include Shake & Spell, Color Connect and Pet Hero.

What makes this acquisition a bit more interesting is that SocialDeck has significant cross-platform experience. A non-game product it offers, called Spark, provides social integration across Blackberry, the iPhone and Facebook, while Shake & Spell also works on all three of those platforms.

Google’s gaming interest is obviously with Android. But it’s also reportedly working on a social platform to rival Facebook; Google’s technology plans could be advanced by SocialDeck’s experience in extending the social experience across multiple devices.

Buying SocialDeck also seems to fit in with Google’s broader plans, which we wrote about following its acquisition of Slide. With Slide, Google is likely working on a broad, viral platform for both the web and its own mobile devices.

The effort is being headed up by Slide founder Max Levchin, as we reported last week; it’s possible he had a hand in buying SocialDeck, although the timing may have been too close.

There’s no word yet on how much Google paid for SocialDeck. The company is based on Ontario, Canada.

August 11, 2010

Google invests in mobile gamer ngmoco

Filed under: Entertainment, Internet, Media, Mobile — Tags: — Raja @ 4:19 pm

Google continues its desperate quest to catch up in gaming. Its latest move is an investment in mobile gaming company ngmoco.

Google Ventures, the VC arm of the search giant, has made an investment in popular iPhone/iPad game developer ngmoco, say multiple sources. The company, which is already profitable, took the money as part of a new round of funding — probably in the $3-5 million range. ngmoco currently has some very popular games on iOS, including ‘We Farm’, which is currently the second most popular game on the iPad. The investment valued ngmoco well above $100 million, we’ve heard. This comes on top of a $25 million Series C round ngmoco closed in February.

This is not an investment being made by Google itself, which has been fleshing out its social gaming strategy with a $150 million investment in Zynga and acquisitions of Slide and social payments company Jambol. Rather, it’s being made by Google’s VC firm, which has repeatedly made it clear that it is a distinct entity from the search giant and that it doesn’t make strategic investments.

Still, it’s hard to take that entirely at face value — Google CEO Eric Schmidt previously said that companies that received funding from Google Ventures would have 20,000 Googlers there to help them. Don’t be surprised if we start seeing an abundance of Android games from ngmoco in the near future. And ngmoco has been a conspicuous underachiever on the Android platform to date. Expect that to change.

Google made several moves recently to catch up with facebook in social gaming. It invested in social gaming company Zynga. It bought social app company Slide and social payment company Jamboola. Google is planning a gaming social network to host games from companies such as Zynga, PlayFish and Playdom.

November 9, 2009

Big day for M&A

Filed under: Business, Internet, Mobile — Tags: , — Raja @ 10:24 am

Today is a big day for tech M&A sector.

Google clearly identifies mobile as the source of their growth beyond the web. Today they acquired mobile ad company AdMob for $750M.

Google has just announced that it has acquired AdMob, the mobile ad platform that has been especially popular on the iPhone, for $750 million. This is a big win for the company’s early investors, which include Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners (this is a huge day for Accel — they were also investors in Playfish, which was just acquired by EA). More recent investors include DFJ and Northgate Capital.

Today also saw EA acquiring web social gaming company Playfish for $300M with another $100M in earn outs.

After lengthy negotiations, Electronic Arts closed it’s anticipated acquisition of social gaming startup Playfish for $275 million in cash. An additional $25 million in stock will be set aside for retaining the top talent at the startup, and another $100 million in earnouts are part of the deal as well if the business hits certain milestones. So the total value of the deal could amount to as much as $400 million when all is said and done. Although, earnouts have a tendency to come up short (see Skype).

Playfish is based in London, and has raised $21 million from Accel Partners and Index ventures. The Accel investment is from its European fund. Playfish’s estimated annual revenues are $75 million.

May 2, 2009

Apple targets the gaming industry

Filed under: Entertainment, Mobile — Tags: — Raja @ 8:33 am

Frobes has an article on Apple’s recent moves that hint at their targeting the gamin industry.

Apple appears to be preparing an all-out assault on the handheld gaming market, moving to snap up gaming industry insiders from Microsoft to go with its growing team of graphics-chip specialists.

News that Apple has poached Richard Teversham from Microsoft’s Xbox business this week is only the latest sign Apple has gotten serious about the gaming business. Teversham, who was senior director for insights and strategy at Microsoft’s Xbox Business, drove the “three year strategy for the Xbox business” in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Earlier this week Apple ( AAPL - news - people ) hired Bob Drebin, chief technologist at Advanced Micro Device’s graphics group and the creator of the Nintendo ( NTDOY.PK - news - people ) Gamecube’s graphics processor.

That move came as IBM ( IBM - news - people ) chip designer Mark Papermaster began his role as head of Apple’s iPod business last month after a long legal tussle with IBM.

Apple is also putting some of its huge pile of cash into semiconductor technology. In December, Apple purchased 3.6% of U.K.-based ImagInation, licensing its PowerVR graphics technology. And last year Apple purchased processor designer PA Semi for $378 million (See “Apple Buys Chip Designer “).

Where will those investments be put to work? Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said in an interview last year that he plans to put his PA Semi designers to work building silicon for the company’s iPhones and iPods. And while Apple keeps its hardware roadmap to itself, iPhone developers such as Damon Allison figure the iPhone and iPod’s hardware will evolve in at least three areas.

First, the iPhone will almost certainly get a better camera and multi-media capabilities. That could unleash a new generation of applications that integrate video and still images into games and social applications, as Nintendo’s new DSi has done.

Second, sooner or later the iPhone and iPod touch will get a new, faster processor, most likely an ARM-based design customized by Apple’s in-house designers. The result will be snappier, better looking games.

Earlier this week Apple ( AAPL - news - people ) hired Bob Drebin, chief technologist at Advanced Micro Device’s graphics group and the creator of the Nintendo ( NTDOY.PK - news - people ) Gamecube’s graphics processor.

That move came as IBM ( IBM - news - people ) chip designer Mark Papermaster began his role as head of Apple’s iPod business last month after a long legal tussle with IBM.

Apple is also putting some of its huge pile of cash into semiconductor technology. In December, Apple purchased 3.6% of U.K.-based ImagInation, licensing its PowerVR graphics technology. And last year Apple purchased processor designer PA Semi for $378 million (See “Apple Buys Chip Designer “).

Where will those investments be put to work? Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said in an interview last year that he plans to put his PA Semi designers to work building silicon for the company’s iPhones and iPods. And while Apple keeps its hardware roadmap to itself, iPhone developers such as Damon Allison figure the iPhone and iPod’s hardware will evolve in at least three areas.

First, the iPhone will almost certainly get a better camera and multi-media capabilities. That could unleash a new generation of applications that integrate video and still images into games and social applications, as Nintendo’s new DSi has done.

Second, sooner or later the iPhone and iPod touch will get a new, faster processor, most likely an ARM-based design customized by Apple’s in-house designers. The result will be snappier, better looking games.

April 29, 2009

Calling BS: Zynga making $100M?

Filed under: Internet, Mobile — Tags: — Raja @ 10:51 pm

Techcrunch says so.

picture-511Zynga, the online gaming publisher, is making a ton of money. Just how much? Well, earlier reports put revenue at something around $50 million, but some new numbers obtained by Sarah Lacy suggests that it’s closer to $100 million. And clearly, it’s accelerating. We’re hearing that the run rate for 2009 may even be well above that.

So in case it wasn’t already clear, there looks to be a bright future in the online gaming sphere and specifically around micro-transactions. That’s how Zynga makes most of its money. With some of its leading games on MySpace and Facebook, it charges users for playing time or for things like chips in poker. These small purchases which usually amount to only a few dollars at a time, start to add up quick. And that’s only with a small percentage of overall players opting to buy them.

And Zynga recently transitioned this model to the iPhone, but because the iPhone doesn’t yet allow for in-app purchases, it has been forced to sell expensive versions of its apps like Live Poker, with chips included. But that’s about to change with the iPhone 3.0 software due this summer. The new software’s in-app purchases could very well take Zynga’s revenues even higher.

Just last week, VentureBeat’s Eric Eldon speculated that Zynga, which is now the largest Facebook app developer, might be trying to raise another large round of funding — something to the tune of $30 million. Given these revenue numbers — and yes, Zynga is already profitable as well — that certainly doesn’t seem out of the question. The company raised a $29 million round back in July of last year, and has raised $39 million total.

If Zynga is doing $100M in revenues and is profitable why would they need to raise $30M. This doesn’t add up.

Update: BW has a featured article on Zynga. It looks like there is a calcualted PR campaign going on in preparation for fund raising.

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