Zynga Officially Announces Purchase Of OMGPOP, Won’t Disclose Financials

Zynga held a conference call earlier today where they formally announced their purchase of OMGPOP the creators of the hit game “Draw Something”. Zynga’s head of mobile David Ko conducted the call from OMGPOP’s New York headquarters.

During the call Zynga announced that they are at 240 million monthly active users (MAU), and still have their sites on one billion monthly active users. Ko said that their mission at Zynga was to continue connecting people through games.

If for some reason you’ve been living under a rock and you’re not sure what OMGPOP or “Draw Something” is, it’s a Pictionary style game that you can play on your phone against your Facebook friends or completely random strangers. You take turns drawing one of three possible pictures, based on difficulty. Easy pictures like a leg or an arm will earn you one coin for drawing and guessing correctly. Tougher pictures like running or bacon will yield you two points. The most difficult category is often proper nouns like Lil Wayne or Lady GaGa for those you get three points.

More after the break
It’s a back and forth game like words with friends or hangman that Zynga had already cornered the market with, until Draw Something came along. Last week Draw Something booted Words With Friends out of the top spot that they had held on to for what seemed like eternity.

When asked during the call if OMGPOP was on Zynga’s radar before Draw Something came along, Ko reiterated the fact that OMGPOP had 35 social games before Draw Something, the timing seems rather convenient.

Under Zynga, OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter becomes the Vice President and General Manager of Zynga NY. Although they didn’t say it on the call we’re hearing that the NY office for Zynga will handle mobile social two player games like Words With Friends and Draw Something, while huge simulation games like Cityville, FarmVille, Petville and others will still be focused on at Zynga’s CA headquarters.

There are also several reports on the internet, with the most believable being at AllthingsD where Peter Kafka has quoted sources close to the sale as saying that OMGPOP was purchased for $180 million in cash and another $30 million in employee retention payments. There is also no word on a cash/stock split and Zynga is and was mum on the call about anything financial related.

We were able to get two questions in after the call. First we confirmed that Zynga’s 240million MAU does not include monthly active users for Draw Something. Also, Zynga wouldn’t comment on any mobile platform development that would end up with a one login and play system for mobile phones. For instance you could just log into Zynga and play Zynga Poker, Words With Friends or Draw Something simultaneously without multiple apps open. Although we’re pretty certain that’s on the way.

When asked what if anything, would change now that Zynga owns Draw Something, Porter said that we could see the ability to save drawings outside of screen shotting them. He would also like to see chat enabled across the Draw Something platform. One thing that won’t change, the name, it will remain Draw Something and not Draw with friends.