Facebook acquires Hot Potato

August 21, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Hot Potato, an app that lets you build a social stream around events and other activities, are reporting on their blog that they have been acquired by Facebook.

“This wasn’t an easy decision, especially since we’ve built up a base of dedicated users. If Hot Potato was going to sell to anyone, Facebook was the natural choice. Facebook is still small, moves fast, provides a great supportive environment for people to be entrepreneurial, and most importantly, Facebook builds great products. We’re looking forward to joining their team. We’ll soon be wrapping up operations at Hot Potato. We will no longer be accepting new user registrations, and we will be offering existing users a way to download their information from the site. To do this, go to: http://hotpotato.com/dashboard/history. In about a month, Hot Potato will close up shop and delete all user data. No user data or account information will be kept by Facebook. We will be sure to keep you posted on this process over the next few weeks.”

USA, Brooklyn, NY

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Zynga acquires social game developer Unoh

August 13, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Zynga has acquired Tokyo-based Unoh, one of Japan’s leading social games companies. Unoh will be part of the foundation of Zynga Japan’s mobile product efforts, which will be a joint venture between SoftBank Group and Zynga, accelerating Zynga Japan’s entry into the Japanese social gaming market.

Unoh is one of Japan’s pioneering social game companies, founded in 2001, with top hits Machitsuku!, Band Yarouyo!, and Kaizoku Chronicle. In addition to maintaining Unoh’s games on mixi, Mobage-town, and GREE, Zynga Japan will also localize Zynga games and develop new games targeted at the Japanese market.

“Zynga is delighted to welcome the Unoh team, one of the pioneer Japanese social game developers, to the Zynga family,” said Mark Pincus, CEO and Founder, Zynga. “The have a great track record of producing innovative, successful games are a complement to the top-notch team we have already begun to assemble in Japan.”

“We’re very excited to join Zynga to help extend its reach to Japanese consumers,” said Shintaro Yamada, founder and CEO, Unoh. “We’re looking forward to being an integral part of Zynga Japan’s leadership and growth, and are happy to support bringing the best social games to Japan’s cutting edge mobile and web technologies.”

Yamada will help lead Zynga Japan’s mobile efforts.

Zynga is the world’s largest social game developer. More than 230 million monthly active users play Zynga’s games include FarmVille, Treasure Isle, Zynga Poker, Mafia Wars, YoVille, Café World, FishVille, PetVille and FrontierVille. Zynga games are available on Facebook, MySpace and the iPhone. 

Location: USA, San Francisco, CA & Japan, Tokyo

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Disney acquires Tapulous, a developer of music games for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch

July 2, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

The Walt Disney Company has acquired Palo Alto-based Tapulous, a developer of music games for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Through a merger agreement, Tapulous is now a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company reporting into Disney Interactive Media Group (DIMG).

As a part of DIMG’s mobile games group, Tapulous strengthens the company’s portfolio of games and entertainment offerings in the fast-growing mobile arena. Through this deal, Tapulous founders, Bart Decrem and Andrew Lacy, as well as their development team in Palo Alto, CA will be joining DIMG’s mobile content group. Decrem and Lacy, previously CEO and COO of Tapulous, will now take on the leadership roles for the DIMG mobile group with Decrem reporting to DIMG President Steve Wadsworth.

“Mobile gaming is seeing unprecedented growth and this is the right time to invest to strengthen our position in the mobile business,” said Wadsworth. “In a short time, Bart and Andrew have built Tapulous into a successful and accomplished mobile games developer that’s emerged as one of the most successful companies in the industry. We welcome the Tapulous team to the Disney family and look forward to integrating their popular games into Disney’s offerings.”

“Tapulous has been on the leading-edge of mobile gaming. By joining Disney, we will be able to continue to excel in this evolving industry and more quickly realize our vision to lead the mobile, social entertainment revolution,” said Decrem. “With Disney’s powerful breadth of content and heritage in technological innovation, they are the perfect partner for Tapulous. It is a true honor to join the Disney team.”

Location: USA, Burbank, CA

Ref: F231109-480

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