Playdom raising a significant round of capital
Playdom, the hot social gaming company that dominates games on MySpace and is moving into Facebook and iPhone games, is raising a significant round of venture capital, VentureBeat has learned.
The company is raising a sizable round in the double-digit millions and is seeking a valuation around $100 million to $200 million, according to venture capital sources.
“I think they’re going to be able to get that valuation,” said one source.
The reason Playdom is getting a lot of attention, and potentially a high valuation and a lot of money, is due to its rapid growth. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company is expected to make more than $50 million in revenue this year, according to Inside Social Games.
Playdom is part of the hottest sector of video games now. It has eight of the top 25 games on the MySpace social network and has more recently challenged rivals such as Zynga and Playfish in Facebook games. It has also launched a version of its popular Mobsters mafia game for the iPhone.
It will be interesting to see just what the company is able to raise. Playdom runs social games — such as Mobsters and Sorority Life — that people play with their social network friends. Playdom has an estimated 28 million monthly active users. That puts it behind Zynga (which has 129 million monthly active users), but it’s a remarkable number given how young the company is. I am also interested to see how well the company does with its original games, as many of its titles to date have been copycats of other successful titles. (That’s one reason the company is in litigation with Zynga).
Playdom has been hiring lots of people and it now has more than 200 employees. Some are working at a new San Francisco office that the company just opened. It also recruited John Pleasants, formerly the No. 2 executive at Electronic Arts, as its chief executive. The company declined comment, but it confirmed revenues will be over $50 million.
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About the Author, Dean Takahashi
Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.
