Looks Like Zynga Just Bought OMGPOP For $200 Million • Hacker News Board

Re: Looks Like Zynga Just Bought OMGPOP For $200 Million

#31

Post by untog » Wed, Mar 21, 2012, 6:28 PM UTC

bitsoda wrote: post #26

untog wrote: post #10

Kind of sad. I mean, congratulations to OMGPOP, but I'd really like to see a decent competitor to Zynga out there. Their games are slow, buggy and overly instrusive, but no other company has the kind of traction they do. OMGPOP could have taken the hard route and built themselves up from the success of Draw Something. Oh well.

The hard route? OMGPOP was incorporated in 2006, Zynga in 2007. They've been trying their hand at online games for a while now. This isn't an overnight success.

No, it isn't. But up until recently OMGPOP was strangely hesitant to make mobile games (as relayed to me by a friend who used to work there). Look at their entries in the app store- they have three games.

They went in a new direction and it paid off. I would have been interested to see them try to go further with it.

Re: Looks Like Zynga Just Bought OMGPOP For $200 Million

#32

Post by paul » Wed, Mar 21, 2012, 6:30 PM UTC

jpdoctor wrote: post #22

j_baker wrote: post #18

Here's more detail on the price: $180 million plus another $30 million or so in employee retention payments, Im told. Is this typical? It would seem that the employees are getting the shorter end of the stick on this deal.

> Is this typical? It would seem that the employees are getting the shorter end of the stick on this deal. Which deals do you think they get the long end of the stick?

Talent acquisitions. Investors are often left with close to nothing.

Re: Looks Like Zynga Just Bought OMGPOP For $200 Million

#33

Post by padobson » Wed, Mar 21, 2012, 6:33 PM UTC

I'm dying to know the cash/stock split on this one. It will send signals about what a company like OMGPOP thinks of the social gaming space going forward.

Considering they just spent 6 years working in the sector, what they think of Zynga's future is telling.

Re: Looks Like Zynga Just Bought OMGPOP For $200 Million

#34

Post by natesm » Wed, Mar 21, 2012, 6:34 PM UTC

matdwyer wrote: post #17

omi wrote: post #12

Who the hell plays this garbage?

It's actually surprisingly fun. My girlfriend spends like 10 minutes drawing these elaborate pictures for strangers. The only thing that infuriates me is when people know what it is but can't spell the word and then give up.

I get annoyed when the "hard" word ends up being some rapper/celebrity name instead of something that everyone knows.

Re: Looks Like Zynga Just Bought OMGPOP For $200 Million

#35

Post by Reebz » Wed, Mar 21, 2012, 6:35 PM UTC

untog wrote: post #10

Kind of sad. I mean, congratulations to OMGPOP, but I'd really like to see a decent competitor to Zynga out there. Their games are slow, buggy and overly instrusive, but no other company has the kind of traction they do. OMGPOP could have taken the hard route and built themselves up from the success of Draw Something. Oh well.

The OMGPOP team is probably reading this from their Ferrari's as they are parked outside the Yacht dealership.

Re: Looks Like Zynga Just Bought OMGPOP For $200 Million

#36

Post by gyardley » Wed, Mar 21, 2012, 6:36 PM UTC

sbov wrote: post #29

gkoberger wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eventually they're going to run out of people to pay or play. Games don't tend to have a long lifespan, so it probably made sense for them to cash out while they're hot. There's no way they can sustain this rate for 2+ years, which is what they'd need to do in order to make $200 million.

Maybe that's part of why Zynga makes sense. They seem pretty good at transitioning players to new games.

Yep, sustained success on mobile is all about cross-promotion between a portfolio of games.

Re: Looks Like Zynga Just Bought OMGPOP For $200 Million

#37

Post by wilfra » Wed, Mar 21, 2012, 6:44 PM UTC

"it has recently been netting around $250,000 a day from the game — that’s after Apple takes its 30 percent cut."

$7.5 million a month at the very beginning of their hockey stick growth, and they are willing to sell for $200 million? Deal of the century for Zynga...

They should have leveraged this into a massive funding round and started making acquisitions, growing etc. Nobody is ever going to compete with Zynga if people cash out to them the first chance they get every time.

Re: Looks Like Zynga Just Bought OMGPOP For $200 Million

#38

Post by methoddk » Wed, Mar 21, 2012, 6:46 PM UTC

OMGPOP are sellouts. Buyouts like this kill me. I hate seeing good companies get gobbled up by others...

Re: Looks Like Zynga Just Bought OMGPOP For $200 Million

#39

Post by tkahn6 » Wed, Mar 21, 2012, 6:48 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #25

tkahn6 wrote: post #4

Is this a talent acquisition or an attempt to capture future revenues of Draw Something?

A $200MM talent acquisition? This meme needs some suppression.

Pretty disappointed that I was downvoted, given that it was a genuine question. No need to be cryptic or condescending.

I'm asking because this is shop that makes a lot of iOS apps with a hope that one hits. They don't have a singular product that they sell. So what is Zynga buying?

Re: Looks Like Zynga Just Bought OMGPOP For $200 Million

#40

Post by ido » Wed, Mar 21, 2012, 6:48 PM UTC

wilfra wrote: post #37

"it has recently been netting around $250,000 a day from the game — that’s after Apple takes its 30 percent cut." $7.5 million a month at the very beginning of their hockey stick growth, and they are willing to sell for $200 million? Deal of the century for Zynga... They should have leveraged this into a massive funding round and started making acquisitions, growing etc. Nobody is ever going to compete with Zynga if…

How do you figure it's only the beginning of a hocky stick growth? Draw Something might just start lose steam in a couple months, the game market is very hit-oriented and a lot of these games don't stay on the top of the chart for very long.

The game industry graveyard is littered with 1 hit wonders that never managed to repeat their success after a single massive home run.