Gaikai Inc., a new cloud based video game streaming service today announced some of its Series B investors. TriplePoint Capital, Rustic Canyon Partners, Benchmark Capital (the lead from Series A) and an un-named partner have invested another $10M+ into the start up. Launching in North America soon, Gaikai's cloud based streaming service will allow gamers to access video games via the Internet, through multiple devices and platforms.

Social game company Zynga announced the acquisition of Beijing-based social gaming company XPD Media. The acquisition marks Zynga’s initial step into the Asian market, giving it a presence in one of the fastest growing markets and bolstering its talent in game development. Pearl Research forecasts the online games market in China will exceed $6 billion in 2012. In 2009, the online games market grew 35% to reach $3.9 billion, which is on top of a 63% increase in 2008.

Japanese internet company, Rakuten, announced today that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Buy.com, a U.S. retail marketplace. Combined, the two companies represent one of the world’s largest online retail marketplaces, offering consumers more than 60 million products from close to 35,000 merchants around the globe. The acquisition, valued at approximately $250 million (USD), will be carried out by Rakuten’s U.S. subsidiary, Rakuten USA.  In 2005, Rakuten established a presence in the U.S. through its acquisition of LinkShare, a performance marketing company.

PepsiCo, one of the world's largest food and beverage companies, today announced that it plans to invest an additional US$2.5 billion in China over the next three years. The newly announced investment is in addition to the US$1 billion investment the company announced in 2008, which will be completed this year.

Playdom, a social gaming company, and Acclaim Games, a developer of social networking and downloadable casual games, announced that Playdom has acquired Acclaim. Acclaim was privately held and is based in Los Angeles, California. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Since its establishment in 2006, there are 15 million registered online users already playing Acclaim's games. Acclaim is currently at work on its latest Facebook game due to launch this summer.

Giant Interactive (NYSE: GA) said net revenue for the first quarter 2010 was RMB304.4 million (US$44.6 million), representing a 10.3% increase from RMB276.0 million in the fourth quarter 2009 and a 18.5% decrease from RMB373.5 million in the first quarter 2009.

Fidelity Growth Partners Europe (FGPE) a pan-European venture and growth equity investor and InnoGames, a developer and publisher of free-to-play online games, today announced a strategic partnership. FGPE has taken a minority stake in the company and will provide advice and access to its extensive partnership network to help InnoGames expand globally. InnoGames currently has almost 50 million registered players playing titles such as Tribal Wars, The West, and Grepolis. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.

Perfect World ( PWRD), an online game developer and operator based in China, announced its unaudited financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2010.

Total revenues were RMB625.0 million (USD91.6 million) in 1Q10, an increase of 2.8%, or RMB17.1 million, from RMB607.9 million in 4Q09, and an increase of 47.0%, or RMB199.9 million, from RMB425.1 million in 1Q09.

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) announced results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended March 31, 2010. GAAP net revenue for the fourth quarter was $979 million, up $119 million as compared with $860 million in the prior year. Sales were driven by Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Mass Effect 2, Dante’s Inferno and digital businesses. GAAP net income for the quarter was $30 million, as compared with a net loss of $42 million for the prior year.

Tencent (SEHK 00700), a provider of Internet and mobile & telecommunications value-added services in China, announced results for the first quarter of 2010 ended March 31, 2010. Total revenues were RMB4,226.1 million ($619.1 million), an increase of 14.6% over the fourth quarter of 2009 (QoQ) or an increase of 68.7% over the first quarter of 2009 (YoY).