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Recently-Acquired Ngmoco Accumulated Losses of $13.36m In 2008, 2009

Ngmoco, the iOS game developer/publisher acquired for up to $403 million this week, showed sharply-rising sales between 2008 and 2009, but losses during that period added up to $13.36 million.

Kris Graft, Contributor

October 15, 2010

2 Min Read
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Social game company DeNA has revealed that CA-based iOS developer and publisher Ngmoco, DeNA acquired earlier this week for up to $403 million, saw its losses more than quadruple from its inception in 2008 to 2009. Documentation on DeNA's Japanese investor website [PDF] (unearthed by Mobile Entertainment) show that the Rolando, We Rule and Plus+ Network developer generated $10.9 million in losses during 2009, up from losses of $2.5 million in 2008. But the company's revenues have showed a steep increase in 2009, rising to $3.16 million from just $484,000 in 2008. In a post-acquisition interview with Gamasutra, Ngmoco CEO Neil Young attributed increased sales to a switch to a free-to-play model that monetized customer's usage instead of individual app unit sales. NGmoco's $403 million acquisition price tag includes $303 million due at the deal's closing on November 9 this year, made up of $128 million in cash, $146 million in common stocks and $27 million in DeNA warrants. The other $100 million in potential payouts -- made up of $56 million in cash, $12 million in DeNA warrants and $31 million in common stocks -- would come from earnouts dependent on financial performance of Ngmoco. While Ngmoco has been a money-loser in 2008 and 2009, the partnership was formed under the belief that the two companies can use each others' expertise and technology to create a cross-platform, cross-territory social and mobile gaming network. Ngmoco's Plus+ Network has over 12 million users and links players together through gaming applications, according to DeNA's English language investor site [PDF]. DeNA's Mobage-Town has over 20 million members in Japan. And it's possible that Ngmoco's 2010 financials are looking up. Ngmoco has also had 17 titles ranked in the App Store's top ten since its June 2008 inception and has seen 50 million downloads as of September this year. The company, which plans to move into the Android OS space soon, has capital of nearly $40 million, DeNA's documents show.

About the Author

Kris Graft

Contributor

Kris Graft is publisher at Game Developer.

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