Zynga Buys Flock Browser

Flock, the six-year-old Redwood City, CA, startup behind the Flock social Web browser, has been acquired by San Francisco-based social gaming juggernaut Zynga. Flock CEO Shawn Hardin announced the deal in a blog post Wednesday. Funded by Bessemer Venture Partners, Shasta Ventures, Catamount Ventures, Fidelity Ventures, and individual investors, Flock attempted to popularize the concept of a Web browser with built-in hooks to social networking and media sharing services, but it lagged far behind other alternative browsers such as Opera in market share. It’s not clear what Zynga intends to do with Flock’s technology—Hardin said only that “Our team will help Zynga in achieving their goal of building the most fun, social games available to anyone, anytime—on any platform.” The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Author: Wade Roush

Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco. Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.) I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia. I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats. My personal site: waderoush.com My social media coordinates: Twitter: @wroush Facebook: facebook.com/wade.roush LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/waderoush Google+ : google.com/+WadeRoush YouTube: youtube.com/wroush1967 Flickr: flickr.com/photos/wroush/ Pinterest: pinterest.com/waderoush/