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Coming Soon to UC Berkeley: Football, Brought to You by Kabam (Update: For $18MM)

The football field in the University of California at Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium is about to get a new name, according to the San Francisco Chronicle: Kabam Field, named after the social games studio. Kabam doesn’t make any football games, but three of its four co-founders are Berkeley alums. The studio’s biggest hits are MMOs like Dragons of Atlantis and movie tie-in games like Fast & Furious 6: The Game. The re-naming cost $18 million for a 15-year deal.

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A New Era for Tech Financing

Rewarding employees and investors without an IPO.
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Unity Plans to Publish, Cross-Promote Mobile Games

Some new verticals for the developer-friendly game engine.

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Secondary Offering Values Privately Held Kabam at $700 Million

An mix of unnamed old and new investors has pinned games company Kabam’s value at $700 million in a $38.5 million secondary offering for current and former employees’ shares. The privately held company is best known for massively multiplayer free-to-play online titles like Kingdoms of Camelot. “None of the new investment is going to Kabam,” CEO Kevin Chou was quoted as saying in a press release. “It’s all going to employees who wish to sell their shares, and it’s of course a voluntary program.” Kabam is profitable, and claims to have $50 million cash in its war chest.

Kabam Hits Profitability in 2012 on Revenue of $180 Million

The privately held games company said its gross revenue increased 70 percent year over year based on a strong mobile performance.

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Boom! Kabam Acquires Exploding Barrel Games.

Casual gaming company Kabam announced Tuesday it has acquired Exploding Barrel Games, the Vancouver, British Columbia-based studio focused mostly on “core” gaming. The acquisition — Kabam’s sixth gaming studio buy in the past three years — expands Kabam’s company personnel to more than 600, including the 30-plus members of the Exploding Barrel Games staff, which will continue to work out of the Vancouver office. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

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Chartboost Secures $19M From Sequoia to Help Mobile Games Attract More Players

Chartboost, which has developed technology that enables developers to promote each other’s games inside of their apps, has raised $19 million in capital. Sequoia Capital led the round, and existing investors TransLink Capital and SK Telecom Ventures, also participated. The San Francisco company said its platform is now being used by more than 12,000 games from companies like Crowdstar, Gameloft, Kabam, Gree, TinyCo and more.

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Kabam Buys Chinese 3-D Social Games Maker Balanced Worlds Studios

Kabam, the San Francisco-based games company that makes mobile and social games, has acquired Balanced Worlds Studios, a Beijing-based company specializing in 3-D social games. Kabam paid an undisclosed amount of cash for the 17-person game studio. The company’s employees will join Kabam’s Beijing games studio, bringing the total number of employees to about 90. Balanced Worlds is headed by game developers from the U.S. and Canada, who moved to China in 2006.

On the Facebook Menu at Zuckerberg’s Recent Dinner With Game Developers: Sushi and a Sliding Pay Scale

At a recent dinner, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg brought together all the top bosses in social gaming to talk shop.

No Need for Tickets: Two Hobbit Games Coming to a Device Near You, for Free

Kabam is publishing two games, inspired by Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit,” that will be free — unlike the movie, which comes out Dec. 14.