Facebook Acquires Storytelling Site Storylane in Talent Grab

feeds.mashable.com Seth Fiegerman 73 days ago

Facebook has acquired Storylane, a relatively young social network focused around telling stories, for an undisclosed sum.Storylane announced the acquisition in a blog post Friday, noting that the service will wind down and the team will join Facebook. "After a lot of discussions with Facebook about how our teams might work together to have even greater impact, we are announcing today that the Storylane team will be joining Facebook," Storylane's founder and CEO Jonathan Gheller wrote in the post.Facebook confirmed the acquisition in a statement provided to Mashable: "The team from Storylane w... Read similar

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Draw Something 2 available with new words, drawing tools

www.tuaw.com Matt Tinsley 25 days ago

Zynga's Draw Something, the incredibly popular drawing game for iPhone, now has a follow-up: Draw Something 2. It's available now on the U.S. App Store as an ad-supported free download or premium, ad-free version at US$1.99. It was just in February that Zynga VP and General Manager, Dan Porter, said there were some exciting things in the pipeline for Draw Something, and we now know what he was talking about. Draw Something 2 has many new additions and features, including 5,000 new words, more drawing tools and over a hundred colors, plus a social feed and "Galaxy", where users can store their... Read similar

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Marc Andreessen At The DealBook Conference

www.businessinsider.com Jay Yarow 159 days ago

Marc Andreessen just spoke at DealBook's conference. We live blogged, and our notes are below. The highlights: Andreessen is in favor of grid lock. He thinks when the government works together, the results are disastrous. He thinks people should go to school for math-oriented degrees. Otherwise, they'll end up working in shoe stores. Meg Whitman is the best CEO for HP since its founders, in his opinion. Microsoft could become relevant again if it can make some hit products. He has no opinion about whether or not consumer web is dead. He tries not to form a thesis, he lets the companies take s... Read similar

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Zynga Looks To Revive Draw Something With A Sequel That's Much More Of A Social Network

techcrunch.com Kim-Mai Cutler 63 days ago

Zynga’s biggest acquisition to date — the $180 million deal to buy Draw Something-maker OMGPOP last year — was the one it ended up being the most pilloried for. At its peak, Draw Something was beating Zynga’s longstanding Words With Friends franchise, a sore point for a company that positioned itself as the dominant social gaming company in the world. After it was acquired, the hit game plateaued then declined — as titles often do in the hits-driven world of the business. But just because the company took a writedown on the game, it doesn’t mean it is writin... Read similar

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Zynga's Top Executive In New York Apologizes For Another Round Of Bad Publicity (ZNGA)

www.businessinsider.com Owen Thomas 70 days ago

Dan Porter, the former CEO of OMGPOP, now general manager of Zynga New York, apologized to his colleagues on Friday for saying that the company copied ideas for games. The company posted his email to the Zynga blog. "Zynga is often accused of copying games, which is mostly true," Porter reportedly said in a panel discussion at a startup's offices in New York Wednesday night, according to Quartz. In a subsequent email to the Quartz reporter, Porter clarified his remarks: What I said was that everyone in the games business copies games. That is the nature of the business and has been well before... Read similar

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Adobe acquires Behance to improve Creative Cloud with new community features

www.slashgear.com Craig Lloyd 150 days ago

creative professionals

In an effort to boost its Creative Cloud service, Adobe has acquired Behance, an online service where creative professionals can showcase their portfolios. With the acquisition, Adobe is looking to expand its web-based offerings with more community-focused features that users can take advantage of. Adobe’s Creative Cloud is a service that includes many of Adobe’s Read The Full StoryRead similar

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What OMGPOP CEO's Exit Means For Zynga (ZNGA)

www.businessinsider.com Owen Thomas 48 days ago

We think Dan Porter's exit at Zynga is a sign of a bigger shakeup at the games maker, as it tries to figure out whether it's future lies in social games like FarmVille or mobile games like Words With Friends and Draw Something. Sean Kelly, a Zynga VP who spearheaded its move into mobile games, is taking over the New York studio Porter ran. Kelly, we're told, moved to New York last fall. His top priority: Rolling out Draw Something 2, the sequel to the hit mobile drawing game that made OMGPOP so valuable to Zynga, around the world. Kelly's nice-guy reputation comes as a contrast to Porter,... Read similar

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The CEO Who Sold Draw Something For $183 Million To Zynga Is Leaving The Company (ZNGA)

www.businessinsider.com Jay Yarow 48 days ago

A year after Dan Porter sold OMGPOP for $183 million to Zynga, he's out of the company. Zynga bought OMGPOP after its social drawing game "Draw Something" went viral. At the time, Zynga was getting hammered for having whiffed on mobile gaming. Draw Something was one of the most popular mobile games. The hope was that Draw Something would lift Zynga's mobile portfolio. Plus, it was reportedly generating decent revenues. There were reports it was doing $250,000 in sales per day as people paid for new color palettes, and other upgrades in the game. However, shortly after Zynga bought OMGPOP, Draw... Read similar

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528,000 People Are Still Waiting In Line For Mailbox, The 37-Day-Old App Dropbox Just Acquired

www.businessinsider.com Alyson Shontell 66 days ago

File storing and sharing company Dropbox has acquired Mailbox for an undisclosed amount. Mailbox is an app that promised to help people reach Inbox 0 with easy archiving and save-for-later features. What's crazy is the app only launched 37 days ago, on February 7. And, thanks to a brilliant marketing scheme that makes people wait in a virtual line to access the app, there are still 525,000 who are patiently waiting to try it out. CEO Gentry Underwood tells The Wall Street Journal that 1.3 million app reservations have been made and 60 million messages are being delivered daily over the service... Read similar

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Zynga distances itself from Facebook

www.slashgear.com Brian Sin 58 days ago

independent game developer

favorite games

Zynga has announced that it will no longer be requiring people to log into their Facebook accounts when entering its site. Zynga wants to distance itself from Facebook in order to become a more independent game developer. You are now able to access your favorite games, like Farmville, Chefville, Draw Sometihng, and more via a Read The Full StoryRead similar

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OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter leaves Zynga after one year

www.slashgear.com Brian Sin 47 days ago

A little past a year after Zynga acquired OMGPOP, OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter has decided to leave the company. It’s believed that Porter’s departure was a mutual decision between him and Zynga. He left just before the sequel of his popular social-game, Draw Something, is set to release. He will be replaced by Zynga’s current Read The Full StoryRead similar

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Draw Something 2 aims to be Zynga’s saving grace

www.slashgear.com Craig Lloyd 24 days ago

Zynga has released the sequel to one of its best games of all time, and they’re fittingly calling it Draw Something 2. The new Pictionary-style game brings more social features, new drawing tools, and a personal gallery that looks to one-up the original installment. The game is available now in iTunes, and it comes with Read The Full StoryRead similar

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Zynga COO David Ko Emphasizes “Discipline” For Future Acquisitions

techcrunch.com Kim-Mai Cutler 103 days ago

A year ago, fresh off raising $1 billion from an IPO and the $180 million acquisition of red-hot gaming company OMGPOP, Zynga’s Mark Pincus did an interview with talk of doing “a few” OMGPOP-sized deals in the next few years. But after a tough transition year and a more than 75 percent decline in the company’s share price, Zynga is speaking much more conservatively about its approach to acquisitions. Zynga had $1.65 billion in cash, short-term and long-term investments at the end of last year, representing one of the larger warchests in the gaming industry for acquisiti... Read similar

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TripAdvisor Buys Jetsetter to Expand Private Sale Offerings

feeds.mashable.com Seth Fiegerman 41 days ago

TripAdvisor has acquired Jetsetter, a flash sales site for high-end travel deals, for an undisclosed sum, the companies announced late Monday.For TripAdvisor, the acquisition helps boost its members-only travel offerings. "With Jetsetter and our own SniqueAway brand, we now have two leading travel private sale sites under one roof," Steve Kaufer, co-founder and CEO TripAdvisor. "We are excited by the opportunities this provides to continually help drive amazing value for our travelers staying at some of the world's most highly-rated hotels."Jetsetter launched out of beta three years ago and cu... Read similar

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OMGPOP Head Dan Porter Leaves Zynga A Year After $180M Acquisition, Former CityVille GM Steps In

techcrunch.com Kim-Mai Cutler 48 days ago

Dan Porter, who led Draw Something-maker OMGPOP into its $180 million acquisition by Zynga, is leaving the company just a year after the deal closed. His departure comes just on the eve of Draw Something 2′s launch, which is supposed to be the big follow-up to the original and is already live in Sweden. “Developing and launching games is a team effort, and we’re proud of the great work the Zynga New York team has done with Draw Something 2,” said Zynga COO David Ko in a statement. “Our follow up to the original hit is even more social and engaging, and we’re excited to get it... Read similar

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Now Zynga Is Making Its Breakup With Facebook Official (ZNGA, FB)

www.businessinsider.com Owen Thomas 59 days ago

Zynga is taking the first step in distancing itself from Facebook, the platform on which it first rose to greatness, in an effort to convince investors that it won't always be dependent on the social network for users and revenues. On its blog, Zynga just announced that it will allow users to sign up for game accounts on Zynga.com without linking them to Facebook. That, in turn, will allow users to play games like FarmVille 2 under any identity they like. (Linking these accounts to Facebook will continue to be an option.) In November, Facebook and Zynga revealed that they'd revised a longstand... Read similar

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AOL Acquires Tech Product Review Site Gdgt

feeds.mashable.com Seth Fiegerman 96 days ago

AOL has acquired gdgt, a popular tech blog that focuses on product reviews, for an undisclosed sum in a move that could expand the network's content offerings and shopping data.Gdgt confirmed the acquisition, which had been rumored for more than a week, in a blog post: "At AOL, gdgt will only continue to grow and evolve as the best premium destination for purchase intelligence, recommendations, user reviews, shopping data, and community-driven content about personal technology." Both gdgt and AOL confirmed the acquisition to TechCrunch, another website now owned by AOL. In some ways, the deal... Read similar

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Ryan Seacrest Just Gave Away Zynga's Secret: Draw Something 2 Is Coming Out (ZNGA)

www.businessinsider.com Owen Thomas 62 days ago

"American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest just revealed on Twitter that he's testing Draw Something 2, a sequel to Zynga's mobile hit Draw Something. Zynga New York general manager Dan Porter confirmed the news in a reply to Seacrest. There's much at stake for Zynga. Zynga spent a reported $180 million to acquire Draw Something maker OMGPOP, where Porter was CEO, a year ago. Last fall, Zynga wrote off about half of the purchase price, and in its most recent quarter, CFO Mark Vranesh said that spending by users who pay for extras in the drawing game had dropped. But since then, Zynga has touted D... Read similar

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'Draw Something' Head Leaves Zynga 1 Year After Selling Company

feeds.mashable.com Seth Fiegerman 48 days ago

Zynga is parting ways with another big name employee.Dan Porter, the man who founded OMGPOP, the gaming company behind the popular Pictionary-style game Draw Something, is leaving Zynga one year after it bought his company for $180 million. Porter's departure was first reported by BetaBeat and has since been confirmed to Mashable by Zynga."Developing and launching games is a team effort, and we’re proud of the great work the Zynga New York team has done with Draw Something 2," Zynga COO David Ko said in a statement. "Our follow up to the original hit is even more social and engaging, and... Read similar

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The 18 Defining Moments Of New York Tech In 2012

www.businessinsider.com Alyson Shontell 164 days ago

employee stock options

It's been a crazy year for the New York tech scene. We saw the Draw Something craze take over the world, startups get acquired for hundreds of millions of dollars, and entire offices get shut down in Hurricane Sandy.February: OMGPOP created Draw Something, and it sold to Zynga for $180 million two months later In early February, New York game shop OMGPOP launched a mobile game, Draw Something. The game grew faster than any mobile app ever before. In its first ten days it was downloaded 1.2 million times. After five weeks, it was downloaded 20 million times. By week six, Zynga swooped in with ... Read similar

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News | Apps : IOS Android Windows | Reviews | Following

DealBook: Zynga Buys Mobile Game Maker OMGPOP

News | Apps : IOS Android Windows | Reviews | Following

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