14 DAY TRIAL // Ngmoco, a leading iOS game developer, has been acquired by Japanese social game developer DeNA for over $400 million, in an effort to form the world's largest mobile social games platform company, sources revealed today.
Ngmoco’s shareholders and employees will receive US$300 million in cash and securities, according to the terms of the agreement.
They are entitled to additional consideration of up to $100 million, contingent upon the company meeting unspecified goals by the end of 2011, AppleInsider notes.
“In ngmoco and its team we see a lot of the same talent and dynamic traction that we have in the Japanese market, making the merger a perfect fit for us,” said Tomoko Namba, founder and CEO, DeNA.
“This acquisition cements DeNA's leadership position in the U.S. We’re building the largest mobile social gaming platform in the world and populating it with incredible games and services.”
“We are delighted to be joining forces with DeNA, a company that we have admired and aspired to,” said Neil Young, one of the four Ngmoco founders.
“The opportunity to be a part of creating the number one social mobile game platform company and to benefit from the unique learning and knowledge that DeNA possesses is an amazing way to accelerate our vision for gaming,” Young added.
Co-founded by Young along with Bob Stevenson, Alan Yu, and Joe Keene, Ngmoco is based in San Francisco with studios in New York and Portland.
The studio received over 40 million in funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Norwest Venture Partners, and others, AppleInsider reports.
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is responsible for the $400 million iFund that supports iPhone developer upstarts.
Ngmoco is probably best known for its Rolando game series and Eliminate. The company’s games are reportedly played more than 50 million minutes a day and have been downloaded more than 60 million times on Apple iOS devices.
It has 20 top 10 iOS applications to date and over 13.5 million registered users in its Plus+ social network.