Zynga Hoping For $1 Billion IPO

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Zynga Dog LogoSocial gaming firm Zynga on Friday filed IPO documents with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) that places the company’s initial price per share between $8.50 and $10.

If that pricing is met the company will have raised between $850 million and $1.15 billion with a total company evaluation of $7 billion.

Those numbers are no small amount, however the company that has created such viral hits as FarmVille, CityVille, and MafiaWars believes they are worth nearly half the valuation of the world’s largest gaming company Activision Blizzard ($14.2 billion).

While $7 billion may seem like a high amount for a relatively new gaming company it should be noted that before pulling their original IPO due to fears of market volatility the company’s valuation was believed to be closer to $10 billion.

While some analysts have mixed feels about Zynga, it’s believed that by selling such a large percentage of the company’s worth during their IPO (14.3% to be exact) they may be able to lessen that volatility. [Read more…]

Groupon COO Departs As Company Corrects IPO Offering For Third Time

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Groupon Social Buying PlatformMargo Georgiadis was hired as Groupon’s Chief Operating Officer (C.O.O.) just five short months ago and already she has announced plans to return for work at Google thanks to a hefty promotion.

Not only is Margo going back to Google to become president of the Americas, she’s the second COO lost by the company in just two months.

News looked even more grim for Groupon after they issued a third amendment to their IPO which cut revenues in half for 2010, making America’s “fastest growing company” in history spiel seem a whole lot less appealing for investors. Groupon filed the amended S-1/A paperwork with the SEC on Friday afternoon.

Realizing that the COO role has been a near disaster for his company CEO Andrew Mason has announced that he will take over much of the role himself. Here’s what he had to say: [Read more…]

Zynga Hunting Down $2 Billion IPO With $20 Billion Valuation

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ZyngaSocial media game developer Zynga has become a behemoth of the online market. With titles that include FarmVille, CityVille, Words With Friends, Hanging with Friends and even a Lady Gaga inspired GagaVille the company currently attracts more than 214 million active monthly users (AMU’s).

With those types of numbers it shouldn’t surprise anyone today to learn that the company has officially filed for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) to the tune of $2 billion.

If the company is able to attract the full value they seek, which myself and numerous other analysts believe they will it would value the company at $20 billion.

The IPO could be an important barometer for IPOs in the social media space, since going public LinkedIn has watched their stock value decline from initial highs, while Chinese social site Renren which became the first social media network to go public has lost half of their value since May.

One advantage Zynga has over other social networks is their ability to grow from outside of one network, they could just as easily adapt their games for their own social gaming platform as place them on Facebook or even offer them through Twitter should that day arrive. The company also has a rabid fan base who install new games the moment they become available, while promoting those games to all of their friends through constant social network updates and requests to join in the fun, a fact that makes the company one of the first to fully take advantage of the viral nature found in social gaming. [Read more…]

China Social Network ‘RenRen’ To Launch IPO

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RenRen China Social NetworkRenRen, China’s most trafficked social network will launch an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, an IPO that is expected to raise $734.4 million and value the company at approximately $5 billion.

According to Mashable’s Jennifer Van Grove:

Renren is offering shares at $12 to $14, a 30% increase over its suggested offering of $9 to $11 per share just one week ago.

If the company reaches the $13 mid-point it will have a valuation of $5.1 billion, not bad for a company that has only 117 million users of which only 31 million actually access the site at least one-time per month.

RenRen is in many ways a Facebook clone, when Facebook announced a “Like” button, RenRen shortly followed suit, when Facebook announced Groups, RenRen again jumped onboard. The one big difference is that RenRen charges brands upwards of $90,000 to create a fan page, an offering made available by Facebook for free. [Read more…]

LinkedIn Goes Public But Who Owns The Biggest Slice Of The Pie?

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LinkedIn LogoLinkedIn is proving it pays to network. The company has filled its S-1 papers with the Security and Exchanges Comission for an initial public offering.

2010 was the year of IPOs, or at least guessing which Internet giants would hit Wallstreet first. Facebook, Demand Media and Skype were the biggest names tossed around the business networking site LinkedIn is starting 2011 as a publicly traded company.

But who owns what of LinkedIn? Previously unreleased details were revealed in its SEC filing as the company prepares to go public.

Via TechCrunch

TechCrunch sifted through LinkedIn’s S-1’s papers and discovered founder/chairman Reid Hoffman along with his wife Michelle Yee own 19,066,032 shares or a 21.4% share of the company. Other notable shareholders include investors Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners which own 18.9, 15.8 and 5.1 percent of shares respectively. Until the share prices are announced, we won’t know exactly how big the impact of say, 19 million shares is but in the mean time we can guesstimate.

Nicholas Carson at Business Insider did some math and came to this conclusion:

But we do know the company has ~$200 million annual revenues. That’s up 200% from a year ago, so a healthy 10X valuation is entirely called for. So figure it’s a $2 billion company, pre-IPO.
That would mean LinkedIn Reid Hoffman’s 21.4% stake is worth $430 million. CEO Jeff Weiner’s is worth $80 million. Sequoia’s stake – bought for $4.7 million – is worth $380 million, Greylock’s $320 million, Bessemer’s, $100 million.

Not bad for a company that makes networking with business professionals easier. If this is LinkedIn’s IPO, what will Facebook’s monstrous IPO look like?