Zynga

It was founded in 2007 by Mark Pinkus. In two rounds of investments, she received $39 million from 15 investment funds.

According to Zynga, 1.3 million users a day play its games, a total of 230 million players are registered. 90% of revenue comes from sales of virtual goods inside games.

Shareholders - employees and investment funds.

Financial indicators are not disclosed.

History

In November 2012, it became known that Mail.ru Group completely withdrew from Zynga shareholders. When Mail.ru Group entered the London Stock Exchange in November 2010, it owned a 1.4% minority stake in Zynga.

2022: Take-Two Interactive bought Zynga for $12.7 billion

On January 10, 2022, the sale of Zynga to Take-Two Interactive was officially announced, which, among other things, owns the rights to such a popular series of games as GTA. The value of the transaction amounted to $12.7 billion.

Under the terms of the agreement, Take-Two will pay $9.86 for each Zynga share, which is 64% more than the quotations at the close of trading on January 7, 2022. The purchase will be paid with cash and Take-Two shares, after which Zynga shareholders will own from 29.6% to 32.8% of the combined company.

Take-Two Interactive acquired Zynga for $12.7 billion

According to a joint press release of the companies, for the 12 months to September 30, 2021, their total volume of orders for the purchase of products amounted to $6.1 billion. It is expected that in the next three years the indicator will grow at an average annual rate of 14%.

This revolutionary combination will bring together two world leaders in interactive entertainment and make Take-Two one of the largest and most diversified mobile game publishers in the industry... This strategic solution combines our best-in-class franchises for consoles and PCs with a market-leading diversified mobile publishing platform that has a rich history of innovation and creativity. Zynga also has a very talented and experienced team, "said Zelnik, chairman and chief executive officer of Take-Two Interactive.

Zynga is known for mobile games such as CSR Racing, Empires & Puzzles, FarmVille, Golf River, Hair Challenge, etc.

It is planned to close the deal before the end of June 2022. It should become one of the largest in the history of the video game market. For comparison: Tencent bought out Supercell for $8.6 billion, and Microsoft acquired Zenimax for $7.5.

On January 10, 2022, Take-Two Interactive shares fell 10% after announcing the purchase of Zynga. Apparently, investors considered the cost of selling Zynga overestimated.^[1]

2021: Game developer purchase StarLark for $0.5 billion

In early August 2021, Zynga agreed to acquire StarLark, a Chinese game developer previously owned by Betta Games and the Golf River mobile game for $525 million. More details here.

Notes