Zynga Scores $180M Digital Sky Technologies Investment

Russian investor Digital Sky Technologies, which previously invested $200 million for a stake in Facebook, extended its reach into social media today with a $180 million investment in Zynga. Long rumored to be positioning itself for an IPO, the investment gives the company what one tech blog is calling "a stratospheric valuation" and likely  builds in a slightly longer timeline prior to going public. Said Zynga founder Mark Pincus, "The opportunity every quarter is proving to be bigger than we imagined and we always thought it was prudent to keep adding to the capital of the company as we grow."

Revenue estimates for the company are in the $250 million range for the current year; the company has been on a steep growth trajectory — as revenues add up so has headcount, which now stands at a reported 712 full- and part-timers. The DST investment (joined by Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global) is on top of a previous $40M round in which Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Union Square Ventures, Foundry Group and Avalon Ventures participated. Yuri Milner, chief executive of DST explained the Zynga investment as follows: "Our earlier investment in Facebook and now in Zynga underscores our premise that social networking and social entertainment will define the next generation of the web." As a passive investor, DST will not hold a seat or have observer rights on Zynga's board of directors.

Zynga says it has over 230 million monthly active users playing its games which include FarmVille, Café World, Zynga Poker, Mafia Wars, YoVille, FishVille and PetVille.

[This story originally appeared on Virtual Worlds News.]

Join us for the App Developers Conference – October 26-27, 2011 in Santa Clara