Zynga hires away EA’s top mobile and social executive Barry Cottle
Social gaming giant Zynga has hired Electronic Arts’ top mobile and social executive Barry Cottle as Zynga’s new executive vice president of corporate and business development.
The hire is a big development in the war for talent between the two companies, which are in the midst of a major battle for control of the fastest-growing parts of the game business. Cottle will report to John Schappert, chief operating officer at San Francisco-based Zynga and the … Continue Reading
How Zynga grew from gaming outcast to $9 billion social game powerhouse
Update: This article is now available as a 63-page e-book on Amazon’s Kindle bookstore.
Zynga has turned the video game world upside down in its short five-year history. As it’s poised on the verge of a massive initial public offering, the social game startup is now one of gaming’s great success stories.
But its success was never a foregone conclusion. In fact, most game industry veterans didn’t view it as a real game company. Mark … Continue Reading
Zynga posts its IPO roadshow, explains why you should buy its stock (video)
Zynga has posted its pitch to investors for its upcoming initial public offering roadshow. The pitch is part of Zynga’s plan to raise $850 million to $1.15 billion in an IPO that values the company at $5.9 billion to $6.99 billion, or $7.6 billion to $8.9 billion including employee stock options.
Zynga will deliver this 30-minute roadshow pitch to investors over the next nine days. The company is expected to price its shares — now … Continue Reading
Zynga confirms plans to raise up to $1.15B at $8.9B valuation and start IPO roadshow
Zynga plans to raise around $850 million to $1.15 billion at a $5.9 billion to $6.99 billion valuation in an initial public offering that will be priced on Dec. 15 and begin trading the next day. Counting options, the value would be $7.6 billion to $8.9 billion.
Finally setting its long-awaited initial public offering in motion, social game maker Zynga has named a price range for its offering and unveiled its investor roadshow pitch for … Continue Reading
Zynga dives deeper into mobile to reach gamers everywhere (video)
No single game maker dominates smartphone and tablet games the way Zynga is dominating social games on Facebook. But now Zynga may have its sights set on dominion over the mobile market too.
The company is stepping up efforts to penetrate the mobile market. That was evident when Zynga announced five new mobile games at its press conference this week in San Francisco. Mobile could be a bigger market than Facebook games, so Zynga has … Continue Reading
Zynga’s Project Z connects your Facebook friends on Zynga’s own social gaming site
Social gaming giant Zynga is breaking away from Facebook and other social networking sites by building its own independent website with Project Z. The company gave press an early look at the service today, which will come out later this year, at its Zynga Unleashed event in San Francisco.
Project Z is basically an independent website that exclusively hosts Zynga games. It uses Facebook’s connect feature to build a social graph of your friends on … Continue Reading
The DeanBeat: The video game industry’s grudge matches
EDITOR’S NOTE: Welcome to VentureBeat’s new newsletters. Each week, I’m writing a column on an aspect of gaming world that GamesBeat covers. My colleague Dylan Tweney is writing a column on technology and business called Dylan’s Desk. Together, these columns will be available to newsletter subscribers a whole day before they appear here on the website.
The blockbuster video game season has begun, and so has the trash talk. Gamers love to set up “us … Continue Reading
Zynga steals another executive from Electronic Arts
It looks like Zynga isn’t done poaching executives from rival Electronic Arts. Jeff Karp, executive vice president for a major EA division, is leaving the company to join the social game company, according to the Develop game news web site.
EA and Zynga have declined to comment and no official announcement has been made yet. The move comes a few months after EA chief operating officer John Schappert left to join Zynga. Karp’s defection is … Continue Reading
