Swedish social gaming firm buys online games developer
News on 13 Mar 2012
News on 13 Mar 2012
The convergence of mobile gaming and social networking resulted in another commercial deal this week when Swedish gaming firm King.com announced its lock-stock-and- barrel acquisition of Stockholm-based games developer, Fabrication Games.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it is understood that Fabrication’s 12 technical employees (the company was founded by Jadestone Mobile and then spun off) will go over to the King staff roster.
Reporting on the agreement, Techcrunch observed that King.com is following a slew of other casual and social gaming companies interested in the mobile sector, and the Fabrication acquisition should boost its ability build new titles quickly for iOS and Android systems.
Companies like Zynga, Crowdstar, OMGPOP and Funzio have all found some success in crossing over to iOS and Android from Facebook in the last year.
King.com is popular on Facebook with its hit Bubble Witch Saga, which has 16.7 million monthly active users, according to tracking service AppData.
After running a destination site for years, the company made a serious push onto Facebook last year, and it is now the fourth largest game developer on Facebook after Zynga, Berlin-based Wooga and EA in terms of monthly active users.
Techcrunch reports that King.com is looking at a potential initial public offering next year on the NASDAQ. The company last raised funding seven years ago with a $43 million round from Apax Partners and Index Ventures.
