Investment bankers like Michael Grimes play CityVille, too

For an IPO as lucrative as Zynga's $1 to $2 billion, Morgan Stanley Managing Director Michael Grimes (pictured) was seemingly willing to do anything, even play CityVille for hours on end, to gain the company's trust, Bloomberg reports. It's a strategy Grimes has used to get the investment firm in on the IPO (initial public offering) of many a company, but Grimes took his dedication to new heights in connecting with Zynga CEO Mark Pincus over his company's hit games CityVille and Empires & Allies.

And Grimes didn't just hop in to see what the fuss was all about, he all but mastered CityVille. "It's not just that Michael is building out a level or two, he's pretty advanced in his game playing," said Michael Kim of Cendana Capital, who worked with Grimes from 1997 to 2000, and is connected with both Pincus and Grimes over CityVille.

But keep in mind, Grimes' efforts in CityVille were likely to grab Pincus' attention as his company tried to tempt Zynga into choosing it to lead an IPO. However, we bet Grimes liked the game ... at least a little bit. Then again, who knows whether Grimes didn't just get a secretary to play for him--we're gonna go with the "Michael Grimes is a CityVille fanatic" scenario, anyway.

Could Disney's Playdom be in worse shape than previously thought?

That's what a report by Business Insider looks to get to the bottom of, citing several anonymous sources. The report lists several bulleted claims by unnamed folks close to Playdom that range from a handful of high level execs have left the company recently to Playdom was forced to relinquish control over what games it made to Disney. And the House of Mouse is unsurprisingly reportedly not very happy about it.

"Six top executives at the VP level or above have moved on in the last three months including Playdom's Co-COO," one nameless source told Business Insider. Another source told the website that soon after Disney's $400 million plus acquisition of Playdom, the new parent company quickly "started to come in and ask Playdom to work on certain games and drop others," according to Business Insider.

Another notable takeaway from the report states that "voices within Playdom" said that they didn't see a value in pursuing Disney's lucrative brands within social games, because kids--Disney's target audience--doesn't pay up on Facebook. Other anonymous sources came to Playdom's defense, claiming that the company "is making three or four times as much money off its users as other social gaming companies," Business Insider reports.

Disney issued a response to Business Insider, reminding readers that Gardens of Time has been the company's most successful Facebook game, reaching top five status at one point. More importantly, the company was keen on letting players know that the first social game based on a Disney brand is coming. (We guess this one doesn't count then?)

This is certainly not the first time doomsayers have outed Disney and Playdom as headed for failure. There's no doubt the two companies have dragged their feet ever since joining hands.