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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.
That rivals the Heroku for the biggest YC exit so far! (Heroku was ~$212million) OMGPOP would slot in at #2. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkkhSN3vaY4jdF9... This likely means YC gets about $3-5million out of the deal, funding even more startups in the future. :) (edit: Originally wrote Flightcaster for some reason; meant Heroku. Was thinking of Flightcaster earlier today and got confused.)
So many great companies and so many early exits. Great for the VC's and angels - bad for the founders and early employees. And the users. Imagine if Heroku, reddit and others had stayed independent. Facebook got this part right. Reject buyout offers and use them to raise capital at ever increasing obscene valuations - and build your product exactly as you want.
Actually PG has publicly stated that it's almost never good for YC for a startup to exit early. I can't seem to find the comment though.
All the value OMGPOP might have ever had ( which besides Draw-something, they really didn't have * ) will evaporate into the creativity-destructing teeth of soul-grinder Zynga, leaving a big piece of the market available for Indie game-devs * ) OMGPOP has actually been struggling for any kind of success in the casual/social game scene.
That rivals the Heroku for the biggest YC exit so far! (Heroku was ~$212million) OMGPOP would slot in at #2. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkkhSN3vaY4jdF9... This likely means YC gets about $3-5million out of the deal, funding even more startups in the future. :) (edit: Originally wrote Flightcaster for some reason; meant Heroku. Was thinking of Flightcaster earlier today and got confused.)
I'm fairly sure that YC doesn't recycle the money off from wins, but instead returns it to their investors. YC is a for-profit fund that uses other people's money to give about $20k cash and $20k of training in exchange for 6% of their company.
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What shop are you talking about? It's the #1 paid app, the #1 free app, and is king of the top grossing list, too.
Has there ever even been a "talent acquisition" in the (say) mid-8 digits? Since, say, 2006? Definition of a talent acquisition: you buy a company, and none of its offerings are available 18 months later under any brand. (The true definition would be "and all the members of the team are reassigned to a different project", but that's hard to know from the outside).
200MM for a talent acquisition seems high which is why I also wondered whether it was to capture future revenues from Draw Something. It was an innocent question.
Bittersweet. Draw Something is a great game and it's good to see OMGPOP rewarded for that. But then I hate that it will now be controlled by Zynga.
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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?
What shop are you talking about? It's the #1 paid app, the #1 free app, and is king of the top grossing list, too.
Given that Draw Something fits within the same asynchronous turn-based model of the With Friends games (owned, of course, by Zynga), I'm curious to see where Zynga moves with branding. There's something to be said for unifying all future OMGPOP/With Friends games under the With Friends blanket for cross-promotional purposes, but the "X Something" brand does have some measure of brand appeal.
I would guess they will probably go with 'Draw Something With Friends'.
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Really sad actually. The only reason why Zynga bought them is because Draw Something is so high profile, that there was no way Zynga could steal it. As I said over on Quora, this really sucks as Zynga is a despicable company. Surely, the folks at OMGPOP had been worried that Zynga would try to steal this game, as they have done every one else -- and I would be interested to know what they thought of Pincus' character…
Why do you think Zynga is a despicable company?
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.