You never think of the value of life’s convenient, little distractions, but there’s obviously big money in those silly little games people play on facebook. Game publisher Zynga the company behind Farmville and Mafia Wars get half-a-billion in new investment money…
Makes you look at that facebook notification a little differently when one of your friends “throw” you sheep.
by Mark Hefflinger for pulse news
San Francisco – Social games publisher Zynga is nearing the close of a new $500 million round of funding that values the company at $10 billion, All Things D reported, citing sources. Investors are said to include Morgan Stanley, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity Investments and previous backer Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.San Francisco-based Zynga has published such popular games as “CityVille,” “FarmVille” and “Mafia Wars.”
The funding round is likely a prelude to an initial public offering for the company, whose games have been played by more than 320 million people and at peak times count 3 million concurrent players.
All Things D noted that The New York Times and Wall Street Journal also have reported on the deal, but pegged the investment at $250 million.
The company has already raised more than $500 million; other backers include SoftBank, Google, Andreessen Horowitz and DST Global.