Zynga Acquires Austin based Challenge Games
Zynga has acquired Austin, Texas based gaming company, Challenge Games which develops social games and is best known for their games like Warstorm, a card game and Ponzi, a tycoon game.
Zynga will import all the games of Challenge Games into its games catalogue. Zynga said they will rename Challenge Games Studio to Zynga Austin and will be focused on product development of its existing games . Currently Challenge Games Studio has around 35 employees.
No financial terms were disclosed about the deal, but Challenge Games is a venture backed company which raised 14.5 million from Sequoia Capital and Globespan Capital Partners. The deal doesn’t look to be cheap for a company like Zynga which itself is a venture backed company and generates $300 million in revenue.
All the 35 Challenge Games employees will now be integrated into Zynga’s workforce and will be working at Zynga’s Austin office which will be headed by current Challenge Games’ Co-Founder CEO, Andrew Busey who will become Zynga’s general manager and vice president of the Austin studio. Challenge Games currently has 560,000 monthly active users and 140,000 daily active users on Facebook and various other social networks.
Press Release:
ZYNGA ACQUIRES CHALLENGE GAMES
Zynga has announced the acquisition of Austin-based social game company Challenge Games. Effective immediately, the Challenge Games office will become Zynga Austin, a game studio focused on product development. Today’s announcement expands Zynga’s studio operations adding to locations already in San Francisco, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Bangalore, and Beijing.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
“Austin is an ideal location to extend our studio operations with its rich talent in the games business,” said Mike Verdu, senior vice president of Games at Zynga. “We look forward to building out our Zynga Austin studio with the best and brightest in the industry as we continue to bring social games to more users worldwide.”
Challenge Games’ Co-Founder CEO, Andrew Busey, will become Zynga’s general manager and vice president of the Austin studio. The Challenge Games team of 35 employees will be immediately integrated into Zynga’s workforce.
Challenge Games, backed by Sequoia Capital and Globespan Capital Partners, launched in 2007 to focus on immersive Web game development built on a virtual goods business model. Two of the company’s most popular games, Warstorm, a collectible card game set in a fantasy universe, and Ponzi, a tycoon game, will be further developed by the Zynga team.
Today’s acquisition along with Zynga’s recently announced partnerships with Facebook and Yahoo! continues to extend the company’s footprint worldwide, creating more opportunities for Zynga to connect the world through games. Recently, the company announced a promotion with 7-Eleven where stores across the United States and Canada are offering special promotional game gifts with Slurpees® and other items.
