Rumor: Google Secretly Invested Over $100 Million to start Google Games

According to TechCrunch, Google has secretly invested anywhere between $100 to $200 million in the popular social games development company, Zynga. Apparently, neither Google or Zynga has officially confirmed this news but TechCrunch says that they have confirmed the story from multiple sources.

If the deal is true, then it would be strategically wise decision by Google keeping in view of growing popularity of Zynga’s games on social networks especially Facebook. Earlier there were rumors about Google planning to launch a social networking site called “Google Me” to compete with Facebook. So this deal might just go hand in hand with that news as the deal with Zynga will greatly benefit Google’s new social network in routing Zynga’s solid user base to its network.

There is another news floating around which is confirmed from multiple sources that Google is planning to launch Google Games later this year. The main source of this is from the Google’s job board where the company is looking for a Games Project Management Leader for developing commercial games for Google.

Now we have to just wait and and see till Google officially coming out with its next product releases.

Below is that job opening for Product lead for Google Games.

Product Management Leader, Games – Mountain View

This position is based in Mountain View, CA.

The area: Product Management

One of the many reasons Google consistently brings innovative, world-changing products to market is because of the collaborative work we do in Product Management. With eyes focused squarely on the future, our team works closely with creative and prolific engineers to help design and develop technologies that improve access to the world’s information. We’re responsible for guiding products throughout the execution cycle, focusing specifically on analyzing, positioning, packaging, promoting and tailoring our solutions to all the markets where Google does business.

The role: Product Management Leader, Games

The Product Management Leader, Games will be a flexible, results-oriented, and experienced senior leader who will be responsible for developing Google’s games commerce product strategy and partnering to build and manage the business with a cross-functional team. You will have visionary product insight, combined with experience in the online content business, significant technical expertise and extensive leadership and business skills. The Product Management Leader, Games combines a great instinct for developing compelling products with a strong focus on users and technical aptitude to work with a world class engineering team and the business sense to drive product goals and strategies.

Responsibilities:

• Identify market opportunities and define product vision and strategy.
• Develop and launch new products and enhance existing products.
• Lead and mentor a team of Product Managers.
• Engage closely with the engineering team to help determine the best technical implementation methods as well as a reasonable execution schedule.
• Establish partnerships as necessary to drive the growth of Google’s products.

Requirements:

• Technical degree or equivalent experience. Masters or PhD preferred.
• Experience building an online gaming business both on the web and on mobile devices. Deep understanding of the game business and how to create hits.
• Proven success in driving product strategy and product design for a successful game.
• Solid product management experience with a track record of creating innovative and winning Internet or software solutions.
• Significant people and organizational management skills. A natural leader and mentor.
• Demonstrated ability to gather user requirements and convert them into a winning product vision. Strong quantitative and analytical abilities.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to evangelize the merits of Google’s products internally and externally.