Social gaming pioneer Zynga, creator of the Facebook games Farmville, CastleVille, and Mafia Wars, among others, is one of tech’s big success stories. The folks at Statista created this infographic on Zynga by the numbers:
Posts Tagged ‘IPOs’
Zynga seeks $1.15B IPO, posts roadshow video
Friday, December 2nd, 2011
Zynga, which created the Facebook games FarmVille, CityVille, and CastleVille, has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to raise from $850 million to $1.15 billion in an initial public offering of stock at a valuation of from $5.9 billion to $6.99 billion.
The social game maker will price the offering, which reports peg at 100 million shares (about 14.3 percent), Dec. 15 and begin trading the following day under the ZNGA on the Nasdaq exchange. Zynga had previously planned to launch its IPO July 1.
The valuation is about a third of the $15 billion to $20 billion bandied about when it filed initially.
Founded in 2007, Zynga makes money selling virtual goods for its popular, free Facebook games. It reported net income of $12.5 million in its third quarter, down from $27 million in the same period a year ago, but up from $1.4 million profit on $2809 million in revenue in the second quarter.
Its CastleVille, launched just over two weeks ago, already has 20.8 million users, making it one of the fastest growing games ever. CityVille, launched a year ago, has 58 million active monthly players, according to its roadshow video.
Zynga plans a 9-day roadshow to pitch the IPO to potential investors. It posted this video version of its roadshow pitch.
Groupon IPO raises $700M, largest Internet IPO since Google
Friday, November 4th, 2011
Groupon, (Nasdaq:GRPN) the Chicago-based daily deal site increased the size of its initial public offering of stock by 5 million to 35 million shares it sold at $20 each – above its initial $16 to $18 range, to raise $700 million in the largest IPO for an Internet company since Google in 2004.
Groupon’s shares soared 42 percent in mid-day trading to $28.45 at around noon. That price puts its market value at $17.8 billion.
Reuter’s reports that the company’s low “float” helped boost demand for its shares. It is selling just 4.7 percent of its shares, one of the lowest percentages of IPO shares offered in ten years.
The IPO is among the most anticipated of recent years.
Groupon is the leader in the daily deal business, which has spawned a host of imitators and competitors, including DC-based LivingSocial and many regional firms.
See also:
Groupon taps Silicon Valley Bankers to defy expectations
LivingSocial may delay IPO plans; GrubHub grabs $50M; Facebook changes
Thursday, September 22nd, 2011
DC-based LivingSocial, Groupon’s largest competitor, may delay plans to file for an initial public offering of stock and take a new $200 million financing round instead, according to Bloomburg, which sites anonymous sources.
The round would value LivingSocial at $6 million and might include equity and debt the report says. It has raised $632 million in backing so far.
The company was discussing a potential IPO of more than 10 billion, but a delay may be prudent in the current volatile market for both it and Groupon.
Jon Carpenter, Director of Marketing, LivingSocial, will be at TechMedia’s upcoming Digital East conference in Tysons Corner, VA, Sept. 28-29.
GrubHub grabs whopping $50 million for mobile restaurant ordering service
CHICAGO -GrubHub, a web and mobile service that connects diners to restaurants and simplifies online ordering for delivery and pick up, has raised $50 million in Series E funding to aggressively focus on its mobile development and acquire New York-based Dotmenu, the parent company of Campusfood and Allmenus.
This Series E funding is led by Lightspeed Ventures with Mesirow Financial, Benchmark Capital, Greenspring Associates and DAG Ventures participating. Terms of the acquisition will not be disclosed.
“Since starting GrubHub with my partner Mike Evans in his apartment in 2004, we’ve sent over $200 million in delivery and pick up orders to independent restaurants across the country,” said Matt Maloney, GrubHub co-founder and CEO. “With our unwavering focus on providing the best service to diners and the most efficient technology to restaurant owners, we have grown to become the leader in the online ordering space.
“It is precisely for this reason that we are acquiring Dotmenu. Dotmenu has shown great expertise in servicing the college market, and by combining our extensive networks, we will become the foremost resource for diners and restaurants for their online ordering needs.”
The Series E and Dotmenu acquisition comes just six months after GrubHub raised $20 million in funding led by DAG Ventures. The funding rounds, coupled with the acquisition, strengthen GrubHub’s position as the category-defining leader in the industry.
Largest restaurant listing in the country
Through the acquisition, GrubHub will have the largest restaurant listing in the country with 250,000 restaurant menus in over 50 major cities and countless college towns across the US. The two companies are projected to send over $225 million in combined order revenues to independent restaurants in 2011, and will continue together to achieve more aggressive growth in the years to come.
“GrubHub has a strong presence in the top US markets,” said Michael Saunders, Founder and President of Dotmenu. “This, combined with our network across more than 300 college campuses, allows us to build upon the strong relationship we have with our diners long after they graduate. The acquisition will enable us to make an immediate impact on our restaurants by sending more orders their way.”
GrubHub is free for diners who order and pay for their meals with cash, credit or PayPal. Restaurants pay commissions for each online order they receive from GrubHub, and every order is supported by GrubHub’s 24/7 customer service. Restaurants that do not currently partner with GrubHub can still list their telephone numbers and menus for free.
Visitors to the site or mobile users enter their address to see every local restaurant that delivers to them. Diners can view menus and coupons, read reviews and order for free online, by phone or through the GrubHub iPhone and Android apps.
There are more than 300,000 delivery and takeout restaurants in the country. On average, GrubHub users order out more than 10 times a month and over 22 percent of GrubHub’s revenues come through mobile orders. Pickup and delivery are the fastest growing segments in the restaurant industry, which is one of the largest sectors of the U.S. economy. With more people searching for restaurants and ordering food on-line and through smartphones, the opportunity for continued growth is substantial.
Facebook changes
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerbergy disclosed huge changes to the social network, which he says now has a record billion visitors a day.
They include a new feature called Timeline, which curates news, apps and visuals. The feature, which sorts content with an algorithm.
While Zuckerberg and Facebook made a lot of hoopla over the Timeline changes to users’ profiles, it is sure to stir up more controversy among users, who have been notoriously unfriendly toward the continual alterations Facebook makes to the site.
The company also added a lightweight status steam called “Ticker.”
One user told us recently, “They just don’t know how to let it alone.”
On the other hand, perhaps it will quell the Facebook fatigue that more than a few of our friends show signs of experiencing.
Here’s a video showing an overview of what Timeline looks like:
Infographic: Tech boom or bubble? You decide
Thursday, July 21st, 2011
CHICAGO – Is there a tech boom or are we in another tech bubble? That’s the question that pops up in the face of extremely high valuations for digital media companies, particularly on the West Coast, and whenever a no-profits company such as Linkedin or Pandora launches an IPO. Sean Harper, CEO of Chicago-based FeeFighters.com, a firm that is like a LendingTree for small businesses looking for services such as credit card processing, says he doesn’t think were in another tech bubble.
“The biggest valuations are similar to those in the bubble era,” he tells the TechJournal, but, he adds, “The companies now have way, way more traction. Companies such as Zynga and Groupon have lots of users and revenues. That’s our perspective,” he says, following the data FeeFighters collected to make the infographic below. “Others could look at the same data and come to the opposite conclusion,” he says.
FeeFighters, a seven employee firm founded in 2009, has raised $1.5 million in backing. It’s provides a shopping platform to help small businesses get better deals on credit card processing, insurance and other financial services. What do you think? Are we in a tech boom or headed for a tech bust? Here’s the inforgraphic:
LivingSocial lines up banks for $1B IPO
Monday, July 11th, 2011
WASHINGTON, DC – LivingSocial, the DC-based main competitor to Chicago-based Groupon in the group local buying space, has selected banks to underwrite a initial public offering of stock to raise $1 billion, according to CNBC.
The company signed on with JP Morgan, Bank of Amercia, and Deutsche Bank, but has not yet filed papers with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission but reports say the company is likely to be valued at between $10 billion and $15 billion.
Competitor Groupon filed for an IPO to raise at least $750 million a month ago.
Yipit, a daily deal aggregator, estimates that LivingSocial captured 24 percent of the daily local deal revenue in top North American cities in May.
While the buzz around daily deal sites has been deafening, they have raised billions in venture backing, and new clones appear, well, daily, a Rice University professor says they may not have a sustainable business in the long run.
Utpal Dholakia in his third and most exhaustive study on the daily deal industry, says not enough businesses are coming back.
Other studies say consumers love daily deals, but are a bit overwhelmed by the volume of daily deal email these firms pump out.
GoDaddy goes for $2.25B; Zynga files for IPO, BLiNQ
Tuesday, July 5th, 2011
Go Daddy Group Inc., parent of domain registrar GoDaddy.com, has sold to private equity firms for $2.25 billion, the company said. The company sold to KKR, Silver Lake and Technology Crossover Ventures.
GoDaddy is looking to exceed $1.1 billion in revenue this year. The company is known for its excellent company service. If you ever bought a domain name from GoDaddy, you likely got a call not long after from one of its service people. The company, based in Scottsdale, AZ, was founded by CEO Bob Parsons in 1997.
Some folks in the tech community have expressed concerns that the private equity buyers of the company will milk it for all its worth without regard to its tradition of selling domain names inexpensively with great service. We’ll see.
Zynga, Farmville-maker files for $1 billion IPO
San Francisco-based Zynga, the game maker that created Farmville and Mafia Wars, two of the most popular Facebook games, has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering of stock to raise at least $1 billion.
For a detailed infographic on Zynga’s path from founding to IPO see: Zynga infographic at Namesake.com.
Zynga, founded four years ago, has users in 166 countries. About 230 million people play its games every month. The company has revenue of $597 million in 2010, up from $121 million in 2009. The profitable company earned $90.6 million in 2010.
It is the latest of the much ballyhooed Internet companies to seek public status following LinkedIn (Linkd) Corp. Analysts expect even greater interest in Zynga’s IPO and the amount of money it decides to raise may change as the level of that interest is better evaluated.
The company was founded by CEO Mark Pincus and has about 2,300 employees. The company’s shares recently sold for $15 each on secondary markets, which would value the firm at $12.6 billion.
The filing with the SEC reveals the company is investing in its own data centers to supplement its use of the Amazon cloud service, which allowed the company to grow fast without building infrastructure. Most Facebook game companies rely on Amazon’s cloud. VentureBeat says Zynga’s ability to design apps that take advantage of Amazon’s cloud is one reason for its success.
Despite the inevitable suggestions that the moonbeam valuations of Internet companies may signal another Internet bubble, many analysts point out that the difference is in the fact the today the Internet is more fully integrated into our public, personal and professional lives. These companies have substantial revenues, enormous numbers of users, and some, such as Zynga are even profitable.
Some analysts note, though, that their market values may still be quite overvalued.
BLiNQ names John Tawadros president, COO
BLiNQ Media, a global technology innovator in Facebook advertising and the only pure-play media and technology company worldwide with official access to the Facebook Ads API, has hired former COO for top search-marketing firm iProspect John Tawadros as president and COO.
Prior to joining BLiNQ Media, Tawadros was the COO of iProspect. Over the course of ten years he helped build the company from a basement startup to the #1 search marketing firm in the world, acquired for $50MM in 2004.
While at iProspect, he built and ran a world-class client services team with a 90%+ client retention rate, a companywide training program and scalable business processes to drive efficiencies, communications, ROI and overall performance.
The client-facing, algorithmic and paid search, technology, training and innovation teams all reported to Tawadros. He also played a significant role in the integration of iProspect with Aegis and in the acquisition and integration of a Texas-based retail industry search firm.
“Social media is the new search,” said Tawadros. “Facebook, the biggest player in digital media, is now the home of innovation, and BLiNQ Media helps advertisers make the most of it. It’s an honor to join this creative, intelligent and hard-working team.”
Zynga IPO filing expected soon at $15 to $20B valuation
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
Game-maker Zynga is expected to file for an initial public offering of stock this week, possibly Wednesday, according to CNBC.
Zynga, already profitable, unlike some of the other digital media companies that have launched IPOs, such as Pandora, recently rasied $250 million at a $7 to $10 billion valuation, according to reports.
The company is expected to have a valuation of between 15 billion and 20 billion and will raise between $1.5 and $2 billion in its IPO, according to Kelly.
Zynga’s investors include Google, DST, Reid Hoffman, Tiger Global, Kevin Rose, Kleiner Perkins, Union Square Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Peter Thiel, Foundry Group and IVP.
Among other games, Zynga makes Farmville and Mafia Wars, two of the most popular Facebook games.
Pandora sets IPO terms, would have $1.4B market cap at high end of range
Friday, June 3rd, 2011
Pandora Media Inc., the California-based Internet radio company, has set the terms for it planned initial public offering of stock. It will offer 13.68 million commons shares at between $7 and $9 a share, which would give it a market cap of about $1.4 billion at the high end of its range.
The company plans to trade on the NYSE exchange under the ticker symbol “P.”
Pandora is probably the best known of the Internet radio stations that allow users to create their own stations themed around music genres, bands, or performers and uses an algorithm to serve up other music users may also like.
Pandora raised about $56 million in venture backing from investors who include, according ot PE Hub: Crosslink Capital (22.92% pre-IPO stake), Walden Venture Capital (18.67%), Greylock Partners (14.06%), Labrador Ventures (8.46%), The Hearst Corp. (5.73%) and GGV Capital (5.15%). Reports say Hearst plans to sell approximately half its stake.
We use Pandora almost daily and have even paid to continue using it when we listen for more than 40 hours before a month ends. The site also allows users to buy tunes or albums they like and serves up ads as well. It also sells a premium, ad-free, no limit service with higher quality sound.
When we first started using the service and mentioned it to friends, most had not heard of it. Now, nearly everyone we know uses it from time to time.
We expect it’s IPO will make another big splash, assuming the economy as a whole hasn’t stalled due to continuing problems.
Chicago-based Groupon, the daily deal site, has also filed for an IPO, and other big Internet players such as Facebook, Twitter and Facebook game-maker Zynga are also expected to line up for IPOs within a year or so if not sooner.
Daily deal site Groupon files for IPO
Friday, June 3rd, 2011CHICAGO – Groupon Inc., the Internet local deal firm that has raised $1.1 billion in venture backing, has filed to launch an initial public offering of stock, although the number of shares it will offer and their price will probably not be determined for several months.
The filing comes on the heels of LinkedIn’s IPO two weeks ago. LinkedIn shares doubled their price in first day trading and recalled memories of the dot com boom at the beginning of the century. It’s success was so dramatic it drew more talk about a new Internet bubble. Many analysts, however, point out that there are major differences between the Internet companies of the earlier era and this one.
Groupon lost $413 million in 2010 on revenue of $713 million, but is growing rapidly. It offers more than 1,000 daily deals to 83 million users in 43 countries. It employs 7,100 employees. The need to put people on the ground in market after market accounts for the cash burn of Groupon and other dialy deal firms such as LivingSocial.
In its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Groupon said it plans to raise up to $750 million in its IPO, a number subject to change as investor interest solidifies.
We suspect that if Groupon is anywhere near as successful as LinkedIn with its IPO, it may do some serious acquistions. Hundreds of smaller local deal companies exist nationally, and some are doing well in their more limited markets.
Facebook, game-maker Zynga, and Twitter are all likely to launch IPOs over the next year or so. Facebook has said it probably won’t file until next April.
See also:
Consumers overwhelmed by explosion in local deals space
Groupon promo helped Houston company boost revenue 140 percent
