Zynga With Friends

Zynga with Friends was a video game developer founded in 2008 by brothers Paul Bettner and David Bettner, and their cousin Michael Chow. In November 2008, Newtoy, Inc. released its first game for the iPhone and iPod touch, Chess with Friends, an asynchronous multiplayer game released for the Apple App Store. In August 2009, it released its second game for iPhone and iPod touch, Words with Friends, another asynchronous multiplayer game with gameplay similar to Scrabble, which ultimately became their best known game. In November 2010, the company was acquired by Zynga for $53.3 million and an undisclosed amount of stock. After the acquisition, the studio was rebranded to Zynga with Friends in December 2010. Newtoy was the company's 14th acquisition during its peak years. "We're reinventing the way people are social on their mobile devices," said Paul Bettner. "The Zynga With Friends Studio will build on the Newtoy legacy of creating approachable, highly social games that are accessible to anyone from anywhere." Bettner said, "We believe [the iPhone] has the potential to be as revolutionary to handheld gaming as the original Gameboy was."