Zynga, the developer of famous social games such as FarmVille, Treasure Isle, Zynga Poker, Mafia Wars, YoVille, Café World, FishVille and PetVille, has acquired Austin-based, venture-backed Challenge Games, for an undisclosed sum.
Following the acquistion, two of the company’s most popular games, Warstorm, a collectible card game set in a fantasy universe, and Ponzi, a tycoon game, will be further developed by the Zynga team, which now includes the Challenge Games’ 35 employees.
Challenge Games was backed by Sequoia Capital and Globespan Capital Partners.
The company’s office will become Zynga Austin, a game studio focused on product development. Challenge Games’ Co-Founder CEO, Andrew Busey, who launched the company in 2007, will become Zynga’ s general manager and vice president of the Austin studio.
Zynga, headquartered in Potrero Hill in San Francisco, has over 230 million monthly active users playing its games available on Facebook, MySpace and the iPhone. With the acquistion, the company has added Austin to operations in San Francisco, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Bangalore, and Beijing.
FinSMEs
04/06/2010