Playdom is an online social network game developer popular on Facebook, Google+ and MySpace. The company was founded in the San Francisco Bay Area by University of California, Berkeley graduates Ling Xiao and Chris Wang and Swarthmore College graduate Dan Yue. In 2009, the market for games played on social networking sites was valued at $300 million, consisting mostly of online sales of virtual goods.
It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Disney Interactive, itself a division of The Walt Disney Company.
On November 12, 2009, Playdom acquired Green Patch and Trippert Labs. In September 2009, competitor Zynga initiated a trade secrets lawsuits against Playdom and 22 other rivals, including Green Patch. These lawsuits were finally settled in November 2010, less than 4 months after Disney's acquisition of Playdom in July 2010.
On March 31, 2010, Playdom announced the acquisition of Argentina-based online game developer Three Melons for an undisclosed amount. In April 2010, Playdom closed all but one of the games from the Green Patch studio six months post-acquisition. On April 26, 2010, Playdom announced the acquisition of Merscom, a North Carolina-based social game developer. On May 19, 2010, they acquired Acclaim Games. On June 7, 2010, Playdom announced the acquisition of gaming developer Hive7 after a $33 million funding round. This marked Playdom's sixth acquisition over the prior year. On July 8, 2010, Playdom announced it acquired Metaplace, Inc.. The pricing of the deal was not disclosed.
The Bola volcano, also known as Wangore, is an andesitic stratovolcano, located south-west of the Dakataua caldera. It is 1,155 metres (3,789 ft) tall and has a 400 m (1,310 ft) wide summit crater.
The most recent lava flow was erupted from the summit crater and flowed to the west. This viscous flow is at least 50 m thick, thus leaving an irregularity in the profile of the volcano. The unforested summit crater and weak fumarolic activity suggests that the most recent eruption may have been only a few hundred years ago.
Coldcut are an English electronic music duo composed of Matt Black and Jonathan More. Credited as pioneers for pop sampling in the ‘80s, Coldcut are also considered the first stars of UK electronic dance music due to their innovative style, which featured cut-up samples of hip-hop, breaks, jazz, spoken word and various other types of music, as well as video and multimedia. According to Spin, "in ’87 Coldcut pioneered the British fad for ‘DJ records’".
Coldcut's records first introduced the public to pop artists Yazz and Lisa Stansfield, through which these artists achieved pop chart success. In addition, Coldcut has remixed and created productions on tracks by the likes of Eric B & Rakim, James Brown, Queen Latifah, Eurythmics, INXS, Steve Reich, Blondie, The Fall, Pierre Henri, Nina Simone, Fog, Red Snapper, and BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Beyond their work as a production duo, Coldcut are the founders of Ninja Tune, an independent record label in London, England (with a satellite office in Montreal) with an overall emphasis on encouraging interactive technology and finding innovative uses of software. The label’s first releases (the first four volumes of DJ Food - 'Jazz Brakes') were produced by Coldcut in the early 90s, and composed of instrumental hip-hop cuts that led the duo to help pioneer the trip hop genre, with artists such as Funky Porcini, The Herbaliser and DJ Vadim.