MySpace's Cofounder Jumps into Social Gaming

So can DeWolfe do it again? Well, he's going to give it a shot. DeWolfe has brought together some of his former colleagues from MySpace and is attempting to build a company to capitalize on social gaming. To this end, he has raised a slug of capital -- which is rumored to be $20 million -- from Austin Ventures.

However, the strategy is not to build a company from scratch. Instead, DeWolfe wants to forge his empire with acquisitions.

And his first deal is for MindJolt. The website has more than 20 million monthly active users on Facebook and other sites (ironically, there was no mention of MySpace.com). In all, there are 1,300 casual games and relationships with roughly 1,000 developers.

No doubt, DeWolfe is targeting a hot market. For example, a report from ThinkEquity has a forecast of $2 billion for the market by 2012.

But, the competition is intensive, such as from players like Zynga. Also, the monetization models are still in the early stages.

Despite all this, DeWolfe has an incredible network of contacts in the media industry and will have a chance to try new business models, such as virtual goods. And with access to capital, he's probably going to waste little time buying up the necessary pieces to be a force in the industry.

Tom Taulli advises on business tax preparation and is also the author of a variety of books, including the The Complete M&A Handbook. His website is at Taulli.com.