Candy Crush Maker Sets Share Price, Heads For NYSE IPO

[Karloff]

Candy Crush Maker Sets Share Price, Heads For NYSE IPO

King's price is $22.50 per, setting the company's value at just over $7 billion.

Candy Crush maker King, more famous lately for its IPO price [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/132196-CandySwipe-Developer-Surrenders-to-King-in-Rage-Filled-Open-Letter] is $22.50 per share on 22,200,000 shares, valuing the company at a little over $7 billion.

Can King deliver? King boasts 180 titles, and its Pet Rescue Saga and Farm Heroes Saga are both good earners, but candy is what makes King so valuable. A massive 78% of King's sales are attributed to one title, and the majority of its customers only know King because of Candy Crush. The candy-coated Saga has 97 million daily active users; King's next most popular titles each have fewer than 20 million daily active customers. If Candy Crush's fortunes fail, King starts looking a lot less enticing as an investment.

"We can go through a long list of one-hit wonders, everything from Angry Birds to FarmVille," says analyst Tony Wible of Janney Montgomery Scott LLC. "In this whole space, you should put a hefty risk discount into the valuations."

King says [http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/26/candy-crush-king-opening-share-price] it wants to use the money raised for working capital, and also to fund what it describes as "general corporate purposes, which may include acquisitions." Estimates indicate that the IPO will create between 100 to 140 millionaires, on paper at least, a little under half of which will be King execs and staff. King CEO Riccardo Zacconi will be worth $700 million, when the IPO dust settles.

Source: Bloomberg [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-25/king-ipo-discount-shows-one-hit-wonder-worry-for-candy-crush-.html]


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[CriticalMiss]

Well at least now it will be easy to keep score of the inevitable demise of King just like the fall Zynga.

 

[Trivun]

Well at least now it will be easy to keep score of the inevitable demise of King just like the fall Zynga.

I agree with you 100%. These companies need to learn that what they're doing is not only morally shady and wrong, but also not a viable business strategy in the long term. There are only so many games that Kynga can steal and rip off before they start to lose that fanbase they've spent so little effort amassing...

On that note, when I was in Grainger Games yesterday I noticed a DS game that's basically a commercialised version of the Flash game 'Shift' and its sequels - which makes me think. Is there any real point to creativity nowadays when the new handheld game process seems to be:

1. Come up with interesting/unique gameplay concept
2. Create an online Flash game that utilises said concept
3. Watch as a horde of ripoffs appear on similar websites
4. Watch again as ripoff merchants create an identical game for the DS/PSP/mobile devices
5. Watch as said ripoff merchants make loads of money off an idea you created...

 

[Atmos Duality]

Zynga part two? Make a load of 'on paper' money, have dubious stock practices and make a lod of quick money off the back of ordinary investors due to inflated prices.

Given King's almost identical modus operandi to Zynga's thus far, I cannot see this going any other way.

 

[gibboss28]

Hmmm, Deja Vu. Probably not gonna be long before I can look at this shit and laugh.

 

[synobal]

Sounds like a great investment opportunity... said no gamer ever...

 

[marioandsonic]

Zynga part two? Make a load of 'on paper' money, have dubious stock practices and make a lod of quick money off the back of ordinary investors due to inflated prices.

Given King's almost identical modus operandi to Zynga's thus far, I cannot see this going any other way.

Same here. I have a feeling they are going to crash and burn within the next few years.

Still, they do have time to try and prevent that from happening...but I don't see that happening.

 

[Micah Weil]

See, what bothers me is that they've set themselves at $22.50 a share. What gives them the idea that they think their stock is worth that much?

 

[Pinky's Brain]

Who the hell is buying this shit? Probably my pension fund ...

 

[faefrost]

If anything this outfit seems almost worse and less ethical than Zynga. My spider sense is saying "expect SEC follies in the future!"

/e goes to get popcorn and settle in to watch the fun

 

[username sucks]

Zynga part two? Make a load of 'on paper' money, have dubious stock practices and make a lod of quick money off the back of ordinary investors due to inflated prices.

King it's self is only really worth the assets it physically has. The user-base could disappeared as quickly as it appeared. Not to mention these companies have a horrible rabbit of overextending and crashing down to earth hard. All they have is their intellectual property, which is shaky at best, and their player base based in three shitty games.

Yes, we see that rabbit all the time with these companies. Sorry, that's just a really funny typo.

OT: Good. Hopefully this will be the death of King. There was literally not one good thing that came from that company