Well, that didn't take long. There's been rumblings over on TechCrunch for a few days now that Zynga was in acquisition talks with OMGPOP as a result of the smash hit Draw Something [$0.99 / Free ].
The original suggestions were that the purchase price would be
somewhere in the neighborhood of $150m to $250m, as OMGPOP itself is a
company that's already fueled by $17m worth of investor cash as is.
Zynga scheduled a call at 3:00 PM Eastern today to discuss a "news announcement," but the guys over at All Things D
have the scoop early: Zynga has picked up OMGPOP for a cool $200m,
which isn't too shabby considering two years ago they doled out $53m to
buy Words With Friends creator Newtoy.
I've got mixed feelings about this news. On one hand, I'm glad that
OMGPOP is reaping the rewards of creating a fantastically successful
game. Zynga has proven in the past
that they talk acquisitions first, but if you turn them down, they have
no problem ruthlessly cloning your game instead. On the other, I really
like Draw Something as it is now, and I'm really not looking forward to Zynga, well, Zynga-ing it up. But, I suppose Word With Friends is still a fun game, so, whatever.
I imagine the guys at OMGPOP will be popping some champagne bottles this afternoon, if they haven't already.
UPDATE: It's official. OMGPOP is now a part of
Zynga. Also noted in the call: picture saving and chat as possible
updates, people don't like the word "latrine," and over 1 billion
drawings have been created since the game's launch. The more you know!
App Store Links:Draw Something by OMGPOP, $0.99 (Universal)
Draw Something Free, Free (Universal)
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