Zynga Officially Values Itself at $1 Billion

[Greg Tito]

Zynga Officially Values Itself at $1 Billion

The social gaming company set the terms for the sale of its stock pretty high on the Wowza scale.

Founded in 2007 by Mark Pincus, Zynga has consistently turned a profit which is unusual for such a young company. That may be the reason the IPO - Initial Public Offering of stock - is valued so high. Today, Zynga announced it will sell 100,000,000 shares on the Nasdaq tech exchange starting on December 15th at an initial price between $8.50 and $10 per share.

Here's some quick math. If 100 million shares are sold at $8.50 a pop, that's a dirty $850,000,000 to make a few more -Ville games. But if the shares are sold on the higher end of the scale and the value grows as soon as those shares become available, Zynga could possibly make $1 billion or more in one freaking day.

That is, if people actually think this whole social gaming thing is gonna stick around. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go home and see if my mother-in-law has checked her cows in FarmVille recently.

Source: Wall Street Journal [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204012004577073880085299856.html?mod=WSJ_Tech_LEFTTopNews]

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[TimeLord]

Maybe I should be buying shares in Zynga? You know, secretly, because then I'd have people know of my public support for companies like this that I despise for all it's done to "contribute" to the gaming industry.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

That's about 1 billion times more than I'd value them.

I've done the maths, and proven it with scientific science taught to me by the sciensors of scienceville.


[sub]Science...[/sub]

 

[Sixties Spidey]

Man, it's going to be awesome when those shares plummet in value because of the falling player numbers. Excuse me while I get my popcorn as I watch the shit-to-fan collision take place.

 

[Sixties Spidey]

Bah, double post. Sorry.

 

[DrSavage]

Zynga doesn't value itself at 1 billion, it seeks to RAISE 1 billion by going public. It means that Zynga values itself at 7 billion and is looking to sell 1 billion worth of shares when it goes public.

 

[Sixcess]

Zynga is inevitably going to collapse as soon as a rival with a successful new gimmick comes along. This feels very like getting out while the going is good.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Weren't Zynga's profits and playerbase starting to dip as casual gamers moved from Facebook games to Iphone and other casual markets?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.327901-Zynga-Numbers-Flounder-Despite-New-Games#13366318

I mean, they got 17.4 million users into the initial release of their last game, but for their transaction business model that means nothing: they have to get those people to consistently buy digital pixels on their games.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.327622-Zyngas-Corporate-Culture-Bleeds-Talent-Money#13359597
Also this piece shows that they Zynga valued Popcap at $950 million, and Angry Birds at $2.2 billion! Wow. The casual games market really is agoing strong.

 

[Xanthious]

There is no way Zynga stock will go much further past the initial price. Even if all the shares do get bought up I can't see the actual stock doing more than lying stagnant if not falling down a few points in the short term. In the long term though I can't help but think the stock will end up crashing and crashing hard.

 

[Zachery Gaskins]

$1 billion, you say?

Cue Dr. Ian Malcolm quote now!

"That is one big pile of shit."

 

[bluegate]

According to new research, 1 billion is also the number of people that hate Zynga and can't stand their "Share! Share! Share! Share! You need friends! Pester friends for items! Pester friends some more!" business model.

I hope they clean up their act and make games that are actually about playing and not about getting their name out as much as possible and making money.

 

[FamoFunk]

Lol, Zynga, you are a funny bunch.

 

[MurderousToaster]

How long is it, exactly, before Zynga releases a game called MoneyVille where the objective is to become the best social gaming company on Facebook by using cheap rip-offs and shady business practices?

 

[Soviet Steve]

If anything they're creative, I doubt the heads of Enron would be able to make such outrageous claims. Then again they are Zynga so any points for creativity go out the window.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Meh. The evil empire is worth lots of money. I already knew that. It's not as if they could afford to be evil on a small budget afterall.

Interesting thing to note from Zyenga, they are making a ton of cash meaning that you should apy attention to their game design but at the same time there game design is straight up evil so you should not make games in the same way. Conflict.

 

[ResonanceGames]

Zynga is exactly the kind of company that should stay private. I smell bloat, buyouts, layoffs, and full scale restructuring in their future.

 

[Formica Archonis]

Wecome to the next dot com bubble. One billion dollars is a lot of money for a company with a declining userbase which has tried and repeatedly failed to free itself of its complete dependence on Facebook. (Seriously - if something came along tomorrow that did to Facebook what Facebook did to Myspace, Zynga would be screwed.) They're a one trick pony. It was a good trick, but the audience is growing tired of it and the pony's showing no signs of even attempting to learn a new one.

Zynga is exactly the kind of company that should stay private. I smell bloat, buyouts, layoffs, and full scale restructuring in their future.

I doubt it. Management is already bloated and deeply politicized, there won't be layoffs because many of the developers have already said they're leaving the minute they can sell their shares, and the place has already needed a restructuring for ages. An IPO won't create a problem, all it can do is make the existing problems more public. Any company whose culture requires you to work 80 hours a week is broken.

 

[Otaku World Order]

How long is it, exactly, before Zynga releases a game called MoneyVille where the objective is to become the best social gaming company on Facebook by using cheap rip-offs and shady business practices?

That would be too meta for them.

 

[CapitalistPig]

Haha. Enron would piss their collective pants at this business move. Apparently teenage dramatic autobiographies and filthy social gaming is worth money eh? Who would've guessed? not me says the flea. BUT in all seriousness crash and burn status. Good luck with your business model of hassling people for personal information and squandering childhood allowances for digital cows and chickens. I see this whole "craze" dying off. But then again i deleted my facebook 6 months ago.