• Boomtown, Tuesday, January 4, 2011 12:50 PM

After less than a year at News Corp., Sean Ryan is heading for Facebook where he'll head up partnerships for the social network's gaming platform. "The move seems sudden, since he just got his latest position," writes BoomTown's Kara Swisher. "But sources said Ryan and execs at the Silicon Valley social networking giant had been talking about a job there before he went to News Corp."

Facebook does not presently create its own social games, only hosting those made by third-party publishers like Zynga. As director of gaming partnerships for Facebook, Ryan will report to Ethan Beard, director of the Facebook Developer Network. According to Swisher, Ryan will work closely with Cory Ondrejka and Bruce Rogers, who joined Facebook after the acquisition of their social gaming start-up Walletin late last year. Meanwhile, sources tell Swisher that News Corp.'s gaming efforts will now be taken over by John Welch, who came to the media giant after Ryan acquired his casual games company Making Fun.

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