14 DAY TRIAL // Walt Disney Co. has announced that it has bought social game developer Playdom for 563.2 million dollars. The company's shareholders will receive an additional 200 million based on its performance after the acquisition, growing the sum to a staggering 763.2 million dollars. Disney plans to expand on its digital gaming portfolio, as well find new ways to build upon its big franchises using today's extremely popular social networks.
“We are at the start of a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the way people of all ages play games with their friends across devices, platforms and geographical boundaries,” said John Pleasants, the chief executive officer of Playdom. “Disney is an incredibly forward-thinking company that shares our vision and is the ideal partner to further our mission to bring great entertainment to people around the world.”
According to Gamasutra, Playdom is a company founded in the early days of 2008 and it has its headquarters in Mountain View. Playdom's currently owns no less than 15 studios, including Merscom, Tripper Labs, Three Melons, Acclaim and Metro Games. The company has developed games for social networks until now. Titles like Mobsters, Mobsters 2, Mobsters: Overdrive, Sorority Life and Bloodlines are now available on Facebook and/or MySpace. Mobsters is the most popular game on MySpace and it has started to grow on Facebook as well, but much more slowly due to Zynga's Mafia Wars juggernaut. Playdom boasts that is has over 38 million active users playing its titles.
The parent company of Mickey Mouse expects to complete the transaction until the end of fiscal 2010 on the 3rd of October. John Pleasants will serve as the general manager of Playdom. Pleasants, who has also worked at Electronic Arts in the past, will also be joining Disney Interactive Studios as an executive vice president.