The company behind Farmville has money. Lots of it. And, for more than a year, they've been buying up smaller development houses left and right. But, Rovio—the development house that created mobile megahit Angry Birds—turned down Zynga when they came calling with mountains of cash.
An article on the Bloomberg business news site reveals that Zynga reportedly offered more than $2 billion to acquire the Finnish company, only to be rebuffed. Rovio wasn't the only one to say no to Zynga either. Rolando makers Ngmoco turned them down and EA beat out Zynga when the two companies both tried to snatch up Popcap, best known for Plants Vs. Zombies.
Zynga currently has $1.8 billion in cash and the San Francisco-based outfit's looking to address its big weaknesses, which are an over-reliance on Facebook and a weak foothold in the mobile space. Angry Birds would've helped with that, but Zynga's hopes of caging the popular avians came crashing down like a green pig's house.
Zynga Flashes $1.8 Billion Searching for the New FarmVille [Bloomberg]