Losses soar at Irish arm of Zynga online games firm

Pre-tax losses last year at the Irish-based international arm of online games firm Zynga increased 16-fold to $86m (€75.7m). This was on the back of revenues at Zynga International Ltd more than halving from $184.8m to $84m.

Zynga is a leading provider of social game services and more than 1bn people have played one of their games including Farmville, Zynga Poker, and Words with Friends.

The company develops, markets and operates hosted online social games played over the internet and on social networking sites and mobile platforms, earning revenue primarily from the sale of virtual goods to the players of its online games.