Google invested $100m in Zynga for new games launch - report
Google Games to go live this year, Zynga revenues for first half of 2010 hit $350 million
A new report has suggested that search giant Google invested between $100 and $200 million in social games company Zynga.
TechCrunch said that the investment backs the launch of Google Games - to go live later this year - as the company seeks a significant investment in the booming casual games scene.
According to the report, revenues for Zynga in the first half of this year were $350 million, half of which was operating profit, with the company projecting 2011 operating profits of $1 billion.
The deal was made by Google itself rather than Google Ventures, and it's suggested that the company will introduce Google Checkout as a payment method for the new service - Zynga is currently PayPal's biggest customer.
Earlier this year Zynga declared $147 million investment from Japan's SoftBank Corp, and sold a stake in the company in 2009 to Digital Sky Technologies for $180 million.