Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA ), the largest developer of games for Facebook, has had a
rough ride since its IPO last December, something it hopes the acquisition of
four mobile video game companies will help address. The purchases, which took
place from August through December 2011, were confirmed on Jan. 18 by Zynga's
chief mobile officer, David Ko. Zynga now owns San Francisco-based Page 44
Studios and HipLogic, New York-based Astro Ape Studios and Game Doctors , a
German company. Fans of Facebook have been playing wildly popular Zynga games
such as FarmVille , Words with Friends and Mafia Wars since 2007, and the
companys games consistently attract more players than those of any other
developer for the platform. Facebook analytics firm AppData reports that Zynga
applications draw an average of almost 222.5 million users per month, crushing
the next-largest developer at under 68 million monthly users. However, despite
having 66 games in release for Facebook, Zynga has been less successful in
translating casual games played on social media sites to paid apps for mobile
devices. Many of its most popular titles have been ported to mobile gaming
platforms but theyre free, relying for revenue on in-app purchases of Zynga
virtual currency and game credits. Three of the four companies Zynga picked up
have developed successful game apps sold through Apple s (NASDAQ: AAPL ) App
Store and the Android Market, including hit premium titles such as the
award-winning World of Goo , which has sold over a million copies, and Game
Doctors' ZombieSmash
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