Amit Chowdhry | February 5, 2012 | 433 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Facebook, Zynga

SplatF.com has put together a useful chart that displays Facebook’s revenue break-down from the past 3 years. While we already know that Facebook generates most of their revenue from advertising, what we did not know was how much they have diversified. In 2011, Facebook revealed in their IPO filing that 85% of their ad revenue was from advertising and 15% was from payments and other fees.

Amit Chowdhry | January 17, 2012 | 619 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Beth Legler, Georgie Fletcher, Larry Legler, Simon Fletcher, Words With Friends, Zynga

A Missouri resident named Beth Legler started playing Zynga’s “Words With Friends” about two years ago. Through the game, she met Georgie and Simon Fletcher in Australia. While playing the game, Georgie mentioned to Beth that Simon was not feeling too well. Beth’s husband Larry is a doctor and he immediately diagnosed Simon with a 99% chance of blockage near his heart. If Simon did not go to the hospital that day, then odds are that he would have died.

Amit Chowdhry | December 2, 2011 | 393 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Avalon Ventures, Foundry Group, Google, Institutional Venture Partners, IVP, Kleiner Perkins, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Mark Pincus, Union Square Ventures, Zynga

Zynga has filed documents with the SEC this morning which indicates that they are planning on raising between $850 million and $1.15 billion in their public offering. This is about $15 million more than their previous estimates.

Amit Chowdhry | November 29, 2011 | 416 views | 2 Comments
Categorized under Angry Birds, PopCap Games, Rovio, Zynga

Social gaming company Zynga had made buy-out offers to mobile gaming companies PopCap and Rovio. Both companies turned down their respective buy-out offers. PopCap, developer of Plants vs. Zombies and Peggle, turned down $1 billion from Zynga. Rovio, developed of the Angry Birds franchise, turned down a $2.25 billion offer from Zynga. Zynga’s corporate culture was cited as one of the major reasons why the two companies turned down the offer. It is also believed that Zynga did not want to pay the amount that Rovio wanted. PopCap Games ended up being acquired by Electronic Arts. It is believed that PopCap took EA’s offer because their earn-out terms were simpler to meet. Zynga is expected to go public very soon. [BusinessInsider]
Amit Chowdhry | November 14, 2011 | 630 views | 1 Comment
Categorized under Facebook, Ford, Ford Escape, Ford Motor Company, Ford Mustang, Jenny McCarthy, Matt VanDyke, Zynga

Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) has launched a couple of social media campaigns to promote the new 2013 Mustang and the 2013 Escape vehicles. The 2013 Mustang campaign was launched on Facebook ahead of the company’s debut of the vehicle at the 2011 LA Auto Show. The 2013 Escape social media campaign was conducted using Zynga’s Words With Friends.

Amit Chowdhry | November 10, 2011 | 475 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Mark Pincus, Zynga

Zynga CEO Mark Pincus is preparing his company to have an initial public offering. However he is now scrambling to get back some of the stock options that he distributed from some of his early employees. According to several Wall Street Journal sources, Mark Pincus decided last year that they needed to get back some of their stock options. Pincus approached some employees and told them to either return the options or get fired.

Amit Chowdhry | November 4, 2011 | 449 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Zynga

Social gaming company Zynga has made $12.5 million in profits this quarter. This is down from $27 million in the third quarter of last year. The company made $307 million in revenues this quarter according to an S-1 filing with the SEC.

Amit Chowdhry | October 11, 2011 | 565 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Zynga

Zynga recently concluded a news event called Zynga Unleashed. At Zynga Unleashed, the company announced “Project Z.” a social games service that is enabled by Facebook Connect. Players can reserve their gamer identity tags, known as zTags, through Project Z.
