Whew, that was a close one. As Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT ) loses its Xbox boss Don Mattrick to Zynga Inc (NASDAQ: ZNGA ) in an effort to save the latter from itself, it turns out that the software giant nearly acquired the social game maker years ago. Bloomberg reports that Mattrick had met with Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) founder Mark Pincus to negotiate a possible sale to Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). The talks dated way back to 2010 before the social game maker went public in 2011 at an incredible $8.9 billion valuation that easily looks frothy in hindsight. Taking a trip down memory lane (i.e., perusing Zynga's original S-1 registration statement with the SEC), the company grew revenue in 2010 by nearly five times to almost $600 million.