Brian Pokorny Returns To SV Angel As A General Partner After Airbnb Talent Deal
Brian Pokorny, who led photo-sharing service Daily Booth and Batch into a talent acquisition by Airbnb, is returning to SV Angel as a general partner. He has a long history with the firm. He’s been a strategic partner of SV Angel since 2009, before he left to be CEO of photo-sharing site DailyBooth. He has also worked with Ron Conway on angel investing since 2006. Pokorny personally has stakes in companies like Twitter, Square, OMGPOP, Milo, Chomp, Tweetdeck, Circle, Bump, Posterous, Milk, Couple, Elepath, and MessageMe. “Investing feels very natural for me,” Pokorny said. “You get to see a variety of things and you get to be very close to startups at an early-stage.” Before working with SV Angel the first time, he worked at Google. Through that, being CEO of Daily Booth and being acquired into Airbnb, he says he’s seen companies at every phase from early-stage, to the hyper-growth period and then into becoming a large, mature corporation. “My passion kind of lies with early-stage ...
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OMGPOP Head Dan Porter Leaves Zynga A Year After $180M Acquisition, Former CityVille GM Sean Kelly Steps In
Dan Porter, who led Draw Something-maker OMGPOP into is $180 million acquisition by Zynga, is leaving the company just a year after the deal closed. His departure comes just on the eve of Draw Something 2?s launch, which is supposed to be the big follow-up to the original and is already live in Sweden. “Developing and launching games is a team effort, and we’re proud of the great work the Zynga New York team has done with Draw Something 2,” said Zynga COO David Ko in a statement. “Our follow up to the original hit is even more social and engaging, and we’re excited to get it into the hands of our players globally. We thank Dan Porter for his efforts in making the Draw Something franchise a success and wish him well in his future endeavors.” It’s another blow for Zynga’s buzziest and most expensive acquisition to date. Ko and Porter are pictured above smiling almost exactly one year ago, just after the acquisition closed. Basically, it sounds like it wasn’t a cultural fit ...
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Zynga Looks To Revive Draw Something With A Sequel That's Much More Of A Social Network
Zynga’s biggest acquisition to date — the $180 million deal to buy Draw Something-maker OMGPOP last year — was the one it ended up being the most pilloried for. At its peak, Draw Something was beating Zynga’s longstanding Words With Friends franchise, a sore point for a company that positioned itself as the dominant social gaming company in the world. After it was acquired, the hit game plateaued then declined — as titles often do in the hits-driven world of the business. But just because the company took a writedown on the game, it doesn’t mean it is writing it off. (Seriously, sorry for the terrible pun.) In fact, Zynga is re-investing in the franchise with a sequel that is designed to have a lot more longevity. OMGPOP head Dan Porter and Ryan Seacrest just tweeted a small preview. From what we hear, it sounds like it will be much more of a social platform where players get to keep and show off their drawings instead of having them disappear into the game. This way the very ...
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Softbank Capital Announces New $250M Princeville Growth Fund To Help Startups Expand Into Asia
Softbank Capital, the venture arm of Japan’s massive Softbank Corp, has just announced a brand new growth fund of $250 million that the firm is calling “the Princeville fund.” Thus far, Softbank has focused more predominantly on seed-stage funding, and would like to expand that focus toward more mature companies looking to push into Asia, particularly Japan, China and Korea. Because of Softbank’s extensive network in Asia through Softbank Corp, Japan’s largest wireless carrier, Softbank claims to be the best possible VC firm for Asia-enticed companies to work with. Softbank’s most impressive exits include the acquisition of OMGPOP by Zynga, BuddyMedia’s acquisition by Salesforce.com, the HuffPo’s exit into the loving arms of Aol, as well as the recent acquisition of Bluefin Labs, Twitter’s biggest acquisition yet. The Princeville fund won’t stray too far from its usual investment focus, including companies homing in on social media, mobile apps, ecommerce, online advertising, ...
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Zynga COO David Ko Emphasizes “Discipline” For Future Acquisitions
A year ago, fresh off raising $1 billion from an IPO and the $180 million acquisition of red-hot gaming company OMGPOP, Zynga’s Mark Pincus did an interview with talk of doing “a few” OMGPOP-sized deals in the next few years. But after a tough transition year and a more than 75 percent decline in the company’s share price, Zynga is speaking much more conservatively about its approach to acquisitions. Zynga had $1.65 billion in cash, short-term and long-term investments at the end of last year, representing one of the larger warchests in the gaming industry for acquisitions. “We’re going to be very disciplined in our approach and in making the right decisions,” said COO David Ko in an interview yesterday. He pointed out three pieces of criteria Zynga is looking at with respect to potential deals: 1) Would an acquisition help to accelerate the company’s existing franchises? 2) Would it help increase profitability? 3) Will it support Zynga’s network of players? “All of these ...
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