Just a day after the social game developer announced its
raising of $43 million in a Series A round of funding, social game firm Playdom (
Mobsters, Sorority Life) has put that cash to use with the acquisitions of Facebook app company Green Patch Inc. and iPhone developer Trippert Labs. Playdom did not disclose how much it paid for the two studios.
Green Patch Inc. is best known for its first release,
(Lil) Green Patch, a garden simulation app on Facebook that currently maintains around 1.5 million monthly active users. The company's other apps include
(Lil) Style Pop, (Lil) Blue Cove, (Lil) Eco Racer, and
(Lil) Farm Life, the last of which was launched last August and now attracts more than six million users per month and over 1.25 million daily users.
“We’ve been close to Green Patch since almost the beginning," says Playdom co-founder and chairman Rick Thompson,
according to a report from Inside Social Games. "We actually work about three blocks from each other. We’re mutual admirers, Green Patch was a social phenomenon, first app dedicated towards a cause."
As for Trippert Labs, the Menlo Park-based company has released web apps and Facebook games (e.g.
Fighter Jets) but is primarily an iPhone developer. Its App Store titles include
MobAir: Pilot Training, Dr. Ito's Brain Training, The Beach, Blowfish, ZapTap, and
Splat!. Playdom also recently entered the iPhone space in July 2009 with a mobile edition of its popular MySpace/Facebook mafia RPG
Mobsters.
The acquisitions come only two months after Playdom opened a new office in San Francisco, where it hoped to recruit local talent. The company characterized its growth last September as "explosive", doubling its headcount to 110 employees in just a couple months.
