Top of the Morning Liz Gannes of AllThingsD has the goods this morning on Zynga’s extensive, albeit heavily redacted addendum to its S-1 filing. Bottom line: Facebook basically owns the social gaming company. Among other items: Any
Zynga game that relies on Facebook integration or Facebook data must be exclusive to Facebook for the duration of the companies’ agreement; Zynga is prohibited from launching games on certain other social network platforms and Zynga must tell Facebook about any new games at least a week before they launch. In exchange, Facebook has committed to helping Zynga meet certain specified monthly unique user targets for its games.
The addendum also confirms that Google is an investor in Zynga.
Apple getting polished: Apple is expected to post another knockout quarter when it releases its Q2 results after market close today. A survey of analyst opinion by Bloomberg says profits are expected to jump 69 percent as iPad sales make up for softening iPhone sales. Expect questions on the call about reports of a new high-res screen for the next-generation iPad.
Ahead of the announcement, Google’s Eric Schmidt tries to rain preemptively on Apple’s parade by launching an unusual attack on Apple’s litigiousness. Speaking at Google’s Mobile Revolution conference in Tokyo, Schmidt blasted Apple’s patent litigation against HTC and other Android device makers.
“The big news in the past year has been the explosion of Google Android handsets and this means our competitors are responding,” he said. “Because they are not responding with innovation, they’re responding with lawsuits.
“We have not done anything wrong and these lawsuits are just inspired by our success.”
Hulu is really, truly for sale: Two people “with knowledge of the situation” leaked it to Bloomberg this morning that the streaming service’s network owners are will to offer suitors five years of access to the networks’ shows, including two years of exclusivity. That’s more than initial reports suggested and smells like a deal-sweetener being dangled by someone at J.P. Morgan getting worried that a deal might not happen.