Zynga buys social browser developer flock

Chinese social gaming maker Zynga has acquired flock, a social-browser developer, in the midday News of the January 8 Beijing time. This is the 8th acquisition that Zynga has completed in the last 7 months.　　The financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed. Flock was founded in 2005 and currently has more than 10 million users worldwide. Flock's browser products incorporate the functionality of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn through a toolbar, as well as link sharing.　　With its unique "social search" feature, users can see a friend's view of a particular item. "Our team will help Zynga achieve its goals and create the most interesting social games available for each platform," Flock CEO Shawn Halding, Shawn Hardin, wrote on the company's blog.　　The Flock team will be merged into Zynga's San Francisco department. Zynga hopes to further expand its social media gaming business through the acquisition.　　The company currently has more than 215 million active users, with Farmville, Mafia Wars and CityVille and many other popular game products. Prior to the acquisition of Flock, Zynga has acquired XPD, Challenge Games, Unoh Games, Conduit Labs, Dextrose AG, bonfire UBM and Newtoy, and many others since March 2010. (Yi Fei)