Because this news day refuses to stop crashing wave after wave of craziness upon our heads, we now learn that OMGPOP, the developer of the newly, wildly popular iOS game Draw Something, has just been acquired by professional mobile game developer acquirers Zynga.
Rumors had been swirling a bit over the last few weeks, since the game's popularity exploded. Zynga reportedly has a 3pm announcement call scheduled to acknowledge the deal, but All Things D has the early scoop that the Zynga/OMGPOP deal is done, and for around $180 million, with an additional $30 million in employee retention payments.
Draw Something has become a bona fide iOS phenomenon in the last several weeks, so it's no surprise that Zynga would be in a hurry to try and get in on the game's success since, well, that's just kind of what Zynga does.
Hilariously, the sudden popularity of Draw Something seems to even baffle those involved with the title. One of OMGPOP's original financial backers is quoted in the All Things D story saying, "No one had any idea that this would take off, and no one knows why it did." That "why is anything anything?" mentality adds a degree of logic to this sale--after all, if you have no idea why the thing you just put money into is selling so well, why would you object to making a whole bunch more money off of it right now?
Supposedly the OMGPOP team, which is quoted as having around 40 employees based out of New York City, will be sticking around following the deal. As to whether they'll be asked to give Draw Something the "...with Friends" treatment, we do not know. But I wouldn't be shocked if at some point in the near future, those annoying Zynga cartoon people suddenly started showing up in my games to see if I want to buy some new drawing tools. Disappointed, certainly, but not shocked.