Andre Yoskowitz
27 Jul 2010 23:45
What was rumored earlier this week is now official; Disney is purchasing social gaming company Playdom, buying up the firm for which it already has an investment stake.
The company will pay at least $563.2 million for the start-up, with the price moving to $763.2 million if certain performance-based incentives are hit.
Playdom says it has over 42 million monthly active users, making it the fourth-largest developer on Facebook based on that metric.
Zynga remains the clear market leader in the space, with over 200 million monthly users on Facebook.
The social site has the most popular game on MySpace, "Mobsters," and a few other popular games such as "Big City Life," "Social City," "Bloodlines," and "Wild Ones."
Says Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey of the deal: "When you look for growth in the near and medium term, it's digital online that will likely be the real contributor. It definitely gives a bit more credibility to the market opportunity."