The Walt Disney Company agreed to acquire online social gaming company Playdo for $ 563.2 million, subject to certain conditions and a performance linked earn out of up to $ 200 million, the company disclosed on Tuesday.
Playdom’s titles, including Social City, Sorority Life, Market Street and Bola, engage around 42 million active players each month. With the acquisition, Disney expects to strengthen its digital gaming portfolio, acquire a management team and provide new ways to interact on social networks like Facebook and MySpace.
Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Playdom has 15 game development studios. Reporting to DIMG president Steve Wadsworth, Playdom’s CEO John Pleasants will become an executive VP of the Disney Interactive Media Group (DIMG) and general manager of Playdom.
Additionally, the transaction will close by the end of Disney’s 2010 fiscal year and is subject to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act clearance and certain non-US merger control regulations.
