Screw the tasteful minimalism of Dots: I am completely, hopelessly addicted to the gloriously tacky Candy Crush.
I play it on the subway, riding the elevator, in bed trying to fall asleep at night. It’s killing my battery. I’ve resorted to begging friends for additional moves, in hopes of escaping the replicating chocolate squares of level 65.
Nor am I alone in my addiction: According to App Data, it’s currently the most popular app on Facebook. It even makes real money off in-game purchases from desperate obsessives like yours truly.
That’s really not enough to justify an IPO, though. And yet the Wall Street Journal says that’s exactly what the makers of Candy Crush want.
The paper reports that “Midasplayer International Holding Co,” a.k.a. King, has reached out to J.P. Morgan Chase, Credit Suisse, and Bank of America to handle a possible IPO, though the deal isn’t final. A spokesman got vague with the Journal: “While it’s an option for the future, we would not comment on when we could consider making such a decision.”
Too bad it would make as much sense as the star of a fluke viral video deciding a gazillion YouTube views qualifies him to be a Hollywood actor. Hits come and go, and it’s really not clear that King has some special, reproducible formula here. Who figured Candy Crush would get so big in the first place? Besides, look at how well all that “big data” blather worked out for Zynga (ZNGA), which is now pretty much bleeding out in the middle of the street, right in front of God and everyone.
Then again, if there’s one thing we’ve learned from Zynga, it’s that you’ve gotta cash out while the cashing out’s good.
