Zynga splashed out $300m on acquisitions in three years

Zynga has spent more than $310 million on business acquisitions since 2010.

As reported by Bloomberg, the social gaming outfit is said to have gone from $10 million in retained earnings to accumulating a deficit of $897 million, which it claimed was “only getting worse.

The total spend on acquisitions over a three year period means that Zynga spent roughly $284,000 a day on new studios.

Zynga has purchased a number of studios around the world over the last few years as it originally aimed to continuously expand its portfolio on the back of mammoth success with Mafia Wars and FarmVille.

The company purchased studios such as UK developer Wonderland Software, Buzz Monkey, Conduit Labs and Astro Ape, and had offices spanning the US, Germany, China, Japan and India.

Its most significant layout however was Draw Something developer OMGPOP, on which it splashed out around $210 million for in total.

Despite the lavish spending, a decline in the social gaming market has resulted in a huge number of layoffs across Zynga, with the firm cutting 18 per cent of its workforce and shutting down a number of studios.

Zynga also recently closed down OMGPOP, just 15 months after its record buy and two-and-a-half months after the launch of Draw Something 2.

Despite racking up huge costs in acquiring new studios and staff, and further expenditure restructuring its operations, the company recently bought Chicago-based developer Spooky Cool as it makes the shift to mobile and real-money gaming.