Zynga acquires Draw Something maker OMGPOP


22 Mar 2012

Social gaming company Zynga has acquired OMGPOP, the makers of popular app Draw Something, in a deal believed to be worth US$210m.

Rumours emerged earlier in the week that Zynga would acquire OMGPOP and Zynga confirmed it had done so in a blog post.

According to TechCrunch, Zynga paid US$180m upfront plus a US$30m earnout to acquire the company.

The deal makes OMGPOP’s CEO Dan Porter a general manager and vice-president of Zynga New York. OMGPOP’s employees will also join Zynga. Porter said nothing would change under the deal and Draw Something would gain new features such as chat, sharing and galleries much faster.

The acquisition is a major gain for Zynga. OMGPOP was established in 2006 and has made more than 35 social games. It’s responsible for making the Pictionary-style app Draw Something for Facebook, iOS and Android devices. The game has been out just six weeks but has been downloaded more than 30m times since. It recently became the most-used app on Facebook.

“Every second, 3,000 people draw something in 84 countries throughout the world,” said David Ko, Zynga’s chief mobile officer.