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Google invested $100m in Zynga for new games launch - report

Google Games to go live this year, Zynga revenues for first half of 2010 hit $350 million

A new report has suggested that search giant Google invested between $100 and $200 million in social games company Zynga.

TechCrunch said that the investment backs the launch of Google Games - to go live later this year - as the company seeks a significant investment in the booming casual games scene.

According to the report, revenues for Zynga in the first half of this year were $350 million, half of which was operating profit, with the company projecting 2011 operating profits of $1 billion.

The deal was made by Google itself rather than Google Ventures, and it's suggested that the company will introduce Google Checkout as a payment method for the new service - Zynga is currently PayPal's biggest customer.

Earlier this year Zynga declared $147 million investment from Japan's SoftBank Corp, and sold a stake in the company in 2009 to Digital Sky Technologies for $180 million.

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Matt Martin

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Matt Martin joined GamesIndustry in 2006 and was made editor of the site in 2008. With over ten years experience in journalism, he has written for multiple trade, consumer, contract and business-to-business publications in the games, retail and technology sectors.

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