Only days after Electronic Arts hooked Playfish in a deal worth up to $400 million, social gaming company Playdom (now run by former EA COO John Pleasants) has announced a successful round of Series A financing in the amount of $43 million. The investment was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), along with Playdom chairman Rick Thompson, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), and Playdom said it will be used "to finance strategic acquisitions and expand the company’s pipeline of market-leading games."
“We are focused on growing Playdom into a world-class gaming company. A number of compelling games are in development for 2010, and we’re bullish about our future and the potential to bring people together through social gaming,” said John Pleasants, CEO of Playdom. “Social games appeal to everyone, everywhere. Our players range from ages 13 to 80 and come from more than 150 countries, so the opportunity for growth is tremendous.”
Playdom has 13 games on social networking platforms. It's the largest game developer on MySpace, and has two of the top five role-playing games on Facebook, but no doubt would like to gain an even greater presence on Facebook. We're guessing that a chunk of this new financing will go towards that.
Along with the funding news, Playdom also announced that Scott Sandell, general partner at NEA, is joining its Board of Directors. He joins Playdom’s existing board members John Pleasants and founders Rick Thompson, Dan Yue and Chris Wang.
“We are thrilled to partner with such an exciting company and strong leadership team,” said Sandell. “We believe social gaming is a transformative industry and Playdom is playing a critical role in shaping its future and the future of online social entertainment.”
TechCrunch, which first reported the financing, said Playdom has a valuation of $260 million. Similar to Playfish, Playdom says the majority of its revenues come from direct payments. Around 70% of Playdom’s money comes from direct payments, 10% from advertising and 20% from offers. Playdom's rival Zynga sued the former a couple months ago for allegedly stealing its "Playbook" of trade secrets.
