"it has recently been netting around $250,000 a day from the game — that’s after Apple takes its 30 percent cut."
$7.5 million a month at the very beginning of their hockey stick growth, and they are willing to sell for $200 million? Deal of the century for Zynga...
They should have leveraged this into a massive funding round and started making acquisitions, growing etc. Nobody is ever going to compete with Zynga if people cash out to them the first chance they get every time.
A cowardly decision? Do you have any idea how stressful it is running a team of 30 employees and tens of millions of dollars in financing and not having a clear path to turn it into a successful company? OMGPOP made great video games for 5 years and none of them stuck. They deserve recognition for sticking to their vision and eventually finding one that is a hit, I can totally imagine why the team wants to sell and not have to worry about the next hit.
"They deserve recognition for sticking to their vision and eventually finding one that is a hit"
They absolutely do. But they are now the latest example of what not to do the second you finally gain traction. As I said in another comment, Facebook got this right. So many others do not, and it is really a pity in the social gaming space as there is a huge need for somebody to compete with Zynga.
How do you figure it's only the beginning of a hocky stick growth? Draw Something might just start lose steam in a couple months, the game market is very hit-oriented and a lot of these games don't stay on the top of the chart for very long.
The game industry graveyard is littered with 1 hit wonders that never managed to repeat their success after a single massive home run.
"Nobody is ever going to compete with Zynga if people cash out to them the first chance they get every time."
NimbleBit (TinyTower guys) rejected a Zynga acquisition offer. I hope that most game companies hate Zynga too much to allow themselves to be acquired by them.
I guessing that OMGPOP's investors pushed heavily toward this solution after years of little traction.
Some people have the belief "I'm going to work real hard for X years and try to make enough so that I don't have to work at all if I don't want to for the rest of my life." I don't know if this is what the CEO thinks, but if it is, I don't think it's cowardly.
I just can't agree with you. Not selling could have been a big gamble in about 8 months if the fad cools down. I think it's a gamble for Zynga as well but they have the pockets to make such a gamble. The OMGPOP team has been around for awhile and have not had great success so I get it.
$7.5 million a month at the very beginning of their hockey stick growth, and they are willing to sell for $200 million? Deal of the century for Zynga...
They should have leveraged this into a massive funding round and started making acquisitions, growing etc. Nobody is ever going to compete with Zynga if people cash out to them the first chance they get every time.