Zynga reportedly refuses to sell remains of OMGPOP to former team

The last vestiges of OMGPOP are fizzling away as the company’s owner, Zynga, is reportedly refusing to sell what remains of it to the former team. TechCrunch reports that former OMGPOP employees attempted to buy back the OMGPOP.com domain, the company’s games, and its intellectual property — whatever Zynga was willing to sell — but was ultimately turned down. Zynga famously purchased OMGPOP for $180 million in March of 2012 on the strength of Draw Something, only to close the office and lay off its staff just over a year later.

We wouldn’t call Zynga’s decision a surprise; new CEO Don Mattrick is trying to right a company that’s in tough financial straits, and selling the OMGPOP team back its assets could be more of a legal headache than it’s worth. It’s also worth noting that the flagship Draw Something has already been rebranded as a Zynga title. Still, it’s too bad that there couldn’t be some kind of amicable resolution. The reported 30,000 or so players of former OMGPOP titles like Cupcake Corner and Snoops will be disappointed to find out that the games are going dark at the end of August.