Disney hooks Playdom in $563M acquisition

Disney's slate of family-friendly characters includes epic names like Mickey Mouse, Hannah Montana, and others, but the company isn't stopping there. Disney is staying that sociable route and today announced it will acquire casual gamemaker Playdom for more than half a billion dollars.

The deal will see Disney obtain Playdom--which was founded just two-and-a-half years ago--and its properties for $563.2 million. Additionally, Playdom shareholders can expect a "performance-linked earn out of up to $200 million" on top of the previous financial figure, according to Disney. The deal is expected to be complete by the end of Disney's 2010 fiscal year.

Playdom is famous for its casual Facebook games, which include Social City, Sorority Life, Market Street, and Bola. Additionally, Playdom's label reportedly collects 42 million active players each month.

Disney also has a stake in Microsoft's upcoming Kinect gesture-recognition technology. At E3 2010, Disney teased a game announcement for the new tech and also revealed that programming from its ESPN cable network will become available when Kinect launches in November.