The speculation surrounding the possible IPO this week of giant social games developer Zynga (see previous reports) has been confirmed; Reuters news agency reported Friday that a regulatory filing reveals that the company plans to sell 100 million shares, or 14.3 percent of the company, at $8.50 to $10 per share.
Based on the mid-point in the price range, that could raise $925 million – a little short of the rumoured billion dollars, but still a significant financial boost for the company if the IPO gets away.
Reuters describes the listing as one of the largest and most hotly anticipated Internet IPOs in years.
The IPO would value the 5-year-old company, which made its name on viral games such as “FarmVille,? and the immensely popular Zynga Poker, at a range of $7.7 billion to $9.04 billion, based on 904 million fully diluted shares. Excluding stock options and based on 699 million shares, the company values itself as high as $7.1 billion.
Zynga founder Mark Pincus will hold a class of shares with 70 times more voting power than the regular stock that will be sold in the offering.