Analyst: Games firm Zynga may raise $1b from float
SAN FRANCISCO: Zynga Inc, maker of the Mafia Wars and FarmVille games played on Facebook, may be valued at $1 billion based on the sale price of a smaller rival.
Valuations for Zynga and its peers were established this month when Electronic Arts Inc bought Playfish Inc for three to four times its revenue, said Jesse Divnich, an analyst with researcher Electronic Entertainment Design & Research. Zynga may generate a value of $1 billion should the company be taken public, said Terry Schallich, head of capital markets at Pacific Crest Securities, a technology-focused investment bank.
"If the IPO were timed to price around mid-2010 or later, our expectation would be for a billion dollar or greater valuation," said Schallich, who is based in Portland, Oregon.
