Just 11 months after selling Chaotic Moon to Accenture, Dallas entrepreneur Ben Lamm has made another sale to a public company.
Team Chaos, an Austin-based gaming company for which Lamm serves as co-founder with CEO Andrew Busey, recently sold to San Francisco-based Zynga, according to VentureBeat, which broke the news Thursday. Financial details were not disclosed.
Lamm declined to comment, but reaffirmed the deal on Twitter, tweeting: “Excited to announce @TeamChaos has been acquired by @zynga. Excited for entire team!”
Team Chaos was founded in 2013 by Lamm and Busey, a Zynga veteran. With the acquisition, Busey will rejoin Zynga and will partner with Monty Kerr, a new hire who will serve as the company’s senior vice president, VentureBeat reports.
Lamm relocated to Dallas after opening a Chaotic Moon location in the city last year. The serial entrepreneur also founded Austin-based Simply Interactive, which was acquired by Ohio-based Agile in 2010. Since selling Chaotic Moon, he’s been focused on getting engrained in Dallas.
“Dallas is amazing,” Lamm said, citing easy international travel, talent, and “huge enterprise customers. “I think Dallas has really interesting things to offer.”
This isn’t the first time Zynga’s dipped into Texas for talent and products. In 2010, Zynga purchased Bonfire Studios, which then became Zynga Dallas. That same year it also acquired Busey’s Challenge Games, which became Zynga Austin, and bought McKinney-based New Toy a year later.
Zynga announced its plans to shut down its Dallas and Austin offices in 2013. This led to numerous app and game development companies forming, including McKinney-based Boss Fight Entertainment, the following two years, as former Zynga talent went on to form new ventures.
Zynga is now focused on growing its casino game segment, in which TeamChaos’ 10-person team will play a role, according to VentureBeat.
Lamm has not released details on what’s next. The entrepreneur also is an angel investor, participating in programs including the Techstars program in Austin and the Sprint Accelerator. While he currently lives in Dallas, Lamm still regularly travels back and forth to Austin for business.
