Zynga buys Toronto mobile software studio

Mobile Five has become "Zynga Toronto" and is part of the San Francisco startup's mobile team headed by David Ko.

"As a key component of our mobile efforts moving forward, Zynga Toronto will help position us in a hotbed of mobile development talent," Zynga said in an online message.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Zynga has bought 15 companies in slightly more than a year.

Zynga, maker of FarmVille and other popular online games, recently filed paperwork for an initial public offering aiming to raise about $1 billion from the markets.

"By offering our shares to the public we hope to enable Zynga to invest more in play than any company in history," Zynga founder and chief executive Mark Pincus said in the company's IPO registration statement, posted on the website of the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Founded in 2007, the San Francisco-based software company makes notoriously addictive games which run on top of social networking site Facebook, including Zynga Poker and Mafia Wars.

The company boasts more than 250 million players per month, dwarfing its competitors in the social gaming space.

More than 2,000 employees work at Zynga developing games such as FarmVille, which allows users to run virtual farms with crops and livestock, including unusual creatures such as purple sheep.

(c) 2011 AFP