Zynga, creator of popular massive multiplayer online games such as Farmville, Mafia Wars, and CityVille had their initial public offering last night, Thursday, December 15. They offered 100 million shares, about 11% of diluted shares, initially priced at $8.50 – $10 but eventually sticking to $10 per share. They were able to raise $1 billion in funding and at $10 per share, their value was at $7 billion.
According to report from Reuters, “certain of Zynga’s stockholders have granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 15 million shares to cover over-allotments, Zynga said in a statement late on Thursday. Zynga will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling stockholders.”
Underwriters on the deal were lead by Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.
Zynga CEO Mark Pincus virtually rang the NASDAQ opening bell from their San Francisco headquarters to mark the start of today’s trading. Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA) officially started trading at $11 when the market opened.
“We thought about the logistics of taking you to New York,” Pincus said. “So we brought the Nasdaq here. With our ipo, we are accelerating this mission of connecting the world through games. There is a lot of energy around our company. And what we need to do is focus that back on our mission and get regrounded in our mission of making games we love to play.”
As of today, Zynga sets the record for the biggest IPO in gaming and the biggest tech IPO since Google went public in 2004.
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