Zynga Expanding Into Ireland

Following news of Zynga's plans to found a Seattle studio, the developer of Farmville and Mafia Wars said it is continuing to expand its operations, this time into Ireland. "We are expanding our operations into Ireland and will have more to talk about later," said company spokesperson Shernaz Daver in a statement to the Irish Independent. San Francisco-based Zynga has been expanding rapidly worldwide. Earlier this year, it acquired Beijing-based social game studio XPD Media, marking the company's first step into the social gaming market in Asia. Earlier this month, the company confirmed that it is founding a Seattle, WA-based studio, following the emergence of job ads seeking web engineers. Also in October, Zynga said that it acquired Dallas-based Bonfire Studios, which was one of several firms established by former employees of Microsoft's now-defunct Ensemble Studios. Since the beginning of the year, Zynga has also bought Unoh in Tokyo, Challenge Games in Austin, Conduit Labs in Cambridge, and several others. Additionally, it recently established a Zynga Japan joint venture with Japanese telecommunications corporation Softbank.