Zynga's acquisition spree continued this morning as the company snapped up Texas-based mobile game developer Newtoy, which creates the popular With Friends franchise of games for the iPhone.
Zynga has bought seven companies in the last seven months, and is looking to Newtoy to improve its already impressive mobile gaming story. Zynga mobile chief David Ko claims that more than 10 million users per month are accessing Zynga games on mobile devices, and Newtoy's games are among the most popular social games on the iPhone and iPad today--Words With Friends has been downloaded more than 12 million times.
Newtoy has 23 employees, and earned money from a combination of advertising and paid versions of its apps. The companies didn't discuss financial details like Newtoy's revenue or the acquisition price.
Our notes from the press call are below:
12:36ET: OK, we're finally underway. The host is the senior vice president of mobile at Zynga, David Ko.
12:37: FarmVille on the iPhone has been a great indicator of massive demand. Been downloaded more than 7 million times in only 5 months. More than 10 million users per month are accessing Zynga games on mobile phones.
12:38: The news: Zynga has acquired Texas-based game developer Newtoy, developer of mobile social games like Words With Friends. It will become the Zynga With Friends Studio.
12:39: Ko says the Games With Friends franchise is the most popular game platform on the iPhone and iPad, with millions of active users per month.
12:41: Now Newtoy exec Paul Bettner is talking about meeting Mark Pincus and their shared mindset: they want to build games with "truly meaningful social experiences."
12:43: That's it for the canned remarks, now we're moving into Q&A. Answering a question about popularity, they note that Words With Friends has been downloaded more than 12 million times on the iPhone and iPad.
12:46: Newtoy has only 23 employees. Also, virtual goods are coming soon, but they have nothing to announce today.
12:48: How will this affect existing Zynga games and Facebook, will there be cross-promotion with Newtoy now? Of course there will.
12:49: "Users now expect when you launch on the PC that they can access some of those things on mobile." So Zynga's PC games are still very popular, there's no slowdown, this is just an expansion to capitalize on the move to mobile.
12:50: Good question: how important is Newtoy to Zynga, and how important is mobile? What's the long-term importance of this?
12:52: Ko says that Words With Friends is one of the most social games available today, with the ability to compete with friends, very sticky. Zynga has 10 million people playing mobile games today, but it's not going to be mobile vs. PC in the future. It's just going to be a single game to play wherever you want.
12:53: Question about Newtoy's business model. Bettner says they've got paid versions and advertising-supported versions. They won't talk specifics on the call, though. That's a wrap.
