Following fast on a series of multi-billion dollar IPOs by American social networks like LinkedIn and Russian search giants like Yandex, Kara Swisher is now reporting that Zynga will file for its public offering within a week.
It’s likely that Zynga (ZNGA)’s entrance to the markets will be much larger than anything we have seen recently. Not only is the company valued at $10 billion on paper, as opposed to $2-3 billion for LinkedIn before the IPO, but Zynga is also extremely profitable, making it something of a unique commodity in the tech world.
So far reports have pegged Zygna’s profits at around $400 million on $85o million in revenue, but Swisher’s sources tell her that the formal filing to the SEC is likely to reveal an even more robust set of financials.
Another factor adding fuel to a Zynga IPO is that investors will likely see this as a proxy for investing in Facebook (META), which seems to be set on delaying its public offering as long as possible. The two companies have a symbiotic relationship, so any social network bulls who haven’t been lucky enough to score stock on the private markets may see this as the best way to bet on Mark Zuckerberg’s global colossus.