CashVille: Zynga prices at a high $10 a share. Not all players are the same!
Join GamesBeat's Dean Takahashi for a free webinar on April 29th that will explore why players leave Free to Play games and how you can change this. Sign up here. After months of delay, social game maker Zynga is finally about to go public. The company priced its stock moments ago at $10 a share, the upper-end of the price range. The maker of games like FarmVille and CityVille now has enough cash to buy many of the hardcore game companies that openly scoffed as Zynga came of age.
Founder Mark Pincus is now a multibillionaire on paper, as the majority shareholder in a company that has staged one of the largest initial public offerings of the year — bigger than Groupon’s $700 million raise and the biggest tech IPO since Google went public in 2004. Pincus Faceoff With Zuckerberg Shows Fearsome Prelude to Zynga’s IPO: Tech. When Zynga Inc. reached an impasse while negotiating a five-year partnership with Facebook Inc. in August 2010, Chief Executive Officer Mark Pincus demanded a one- on-one meeting with Mark Zuckerberg.
The two CEOs ate dinner at the Facebook cafeteria and held a freewheeling discussion until 2 a.m. Over the course of the meeting and two other marathon sessions that followed, Pincus convinced Zuckerberg that Zynga’s games would help Facebook add users and revenue. IT'S OUT: This Is Zynga's IPO Road Show Presentation. Exclusive: Zynga aims for $10 billion valuation in IPO. Zynga files for $1 billion IPO. The creator of FarmVille and Mafia Wars wants to go public in a big way.
Better (two days) late than never. Social gaming giant Zynga today filed for a $1 billion initial public offering. Morgan Stanley (MS) and Goldman Sachs (GS) are listed as lead underwriters. Others bankers include BoA Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs and Allen & Co. The company has not yet selected an exchange or ticker symbol (Zillow has dibs on "Z"). Zynga reports $90 million of net income in 2010 on around $597 million in revenue. Nearly 95% of the company's revenue comes from selling virtual goods, which has increased 127% between Q1 2010 and Q1 2011. Perhaps the most impressive figure is cash on hand. Zynga founder and CEO Mark Pincus is the company's top shareholder, with a 16% position.
At Zynga, we feel a personal connection to our games through our friends and family. Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn (LNKD) founder who first seeded Zynga and sits on its board, appears to have around a 0.6% position. Form S-1. Zynga Finally Files for IPO to Raise $1 Billion - Tricia Duryee - Commerce. Zynga, a four-year-old company which has made its riches off selling virtual goods in social games, has filed to raise $1 billion in an IPO.
The IPO may potentially rank among the largest of the year, especially among tech companies. For instance, Yandex, which is considered the Google of Russia, secured $1.4 billion last month. Zynga said it will use the cash for general corporate purposes, including game development, marketing activities and capital expenditures. Zynga Is Said to Favor Following LinkedIn With ‘Low-Float’ IPO Strategy. Zynga Inc. plans to sell a small number of shares in its initial public offering, adopting a strategy used by LinkedIn Corp. to maintain control of the company while raising money to expand, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
Zynga may make less than 10 percent of its shares available to the public in its IPO, said the person, who declined to be named because the plans are private. That compares with a 24 percent average among U.S. technology IPOs in the past year, according to Bloomberg data. By selling little stock in the IPO, companies protect the value of existing investors’ stakes. A jump in the stock price would let them raise cash at a higher value months later. Zynga May Be Next in Summer of the Tech S-1. The summer of 2011 is shaping up to be the season of the tech IPO.
The past three weeks have seen the initial public offerings of LinkedIn and Yandex, Groupon’s S-1 filing, and S-1 updates from Kayak and Pandora, to name just a few. And according to a report published today by Bloomberg, social gaming giant Zynga is next in line for its stock market debut. Zynga is in the final stages of negotiations with investment bank Goldman Sachs to lead its IPO, according to the Bloomberg report, which cites an anonymous source with knowledge of the situation. The Goldman mandate is expected to be finalized Friday, and Zynga is reportedly looking to file its S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission by the end of June. Zynga Said to Be Near Hiring of Goldman Sachs to Lead IPO, Extend Credit.
Zynga Inc. is in talks to have Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
(GS) lead its initial public offering and provide a credit line of more than $1 billion to help make acquisitions, said a person with knowledge of the matter. Goldman Sachs is expected to make a decision by today, said the person, who asked not to be named because the announcement hasn’t been made public. Zynga, the largest maker of games for Facebook Inc.’s site, is preparing to file for an IPO by the end of this month, the person said. Social-media companies are lining up for IPOs after shares of LinkedIn Corp., the largest professional-networking site, more than doubled in their debut two weeks ago.
Groupon Inc., the biggest online coupon site, announced plans yesterday to raise up to $750 million in an IPO, and music streaming service Pandora Media Inc. is seeking as much as $123.2 million. Dani Dudeck, a spokeswoman for San Francisco-based Zynga, declined to comment, as did Andrea Rachman, a spokeswoman for Goldman Sachs. Close. Exclusive: Zynga About to File for IPO – AllThingsD. Zynga is poised to file for its initial public offering, according to sources close to the situation.
The filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission could come as early as this week, or next week at the latest. The move is not entirely unexpected, given how well the recent IPOs of several Internet companies have done recently, including business networking site LinkedIn last week and Russian search giant Yandex today. Their strong performances show the huge investor appetite for fast-growing and high-profile Web 2.0 firms. Wall Street is also prepping for eventual public offerings from social buying site Groupon and, the big fish, Facebook. Zynga’s valuation in its last round of funding was $10 billion, but it is likely to price itself higher in an offering. After all, LinkedIn now has a market valuation of $9 billion, double its pre-IPO price. The company claims that it has 250 million people actively playing its games every month. Jason Calacanis: WOW! @Zynga IPO is going t... Social game leader Zynga poised to file for an IPO?
Not all players are the same!
Join GamesBeat's Dean Takahashi for a free webinar on April 29th that will explore why players leave Free to Play games and how you can change this. Sign up here. Zynga, the dominant maker of social games on Facebook, is reportedly poised to file for its initial public offering, according to AllThingsD. Citing unnamed sources, the publication said that the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission could come as early as this week or next week. Zynga Close To IPO Filing, Says Report.