Facebook’s leading game developer Zynga reportedly scheduled its initial public offering for the second week of November.
That’s what unnamed sources told Reuters, claiming they were briefed on the offering.
The unnamed sources said this date hasn’t been finalized and could change.
So we’ll take this report with a dollop of salt, especially because the earliest leaks to the media have the greatest likelihood of involving some factual errors.
However, Zynga recently resubmitted its IPO registration with the Securities and Exchanges Commission.
And the way the company announced ten new products October 11 now looks a lot like a strategy for getting the word out before a quiet period kicks in — as if Zynga were bookmarking some future releases.
It also makes sense to do the offering relatively quickly. Since the capital markets have shown some turbulence that had led Zynga to withdraw a prior plan to go public, no one can predict how long the latest stock rally will last.
And like Reuters points out, Zynga’s timing would mean the IPO roadshow would occur right after Groupon’s public offering.
If that deal does well, it could make for a better pitch when the game developer talks to prospective investors.
Zynga first registered with the SEC in July, and has since updated its registration several times.
The most recent update, according to our sibling blog, Inside Social Games, included a valuation of the Zynga’s outstanding equity at $14.05 billion in August, up from $13.98 billion in May.
Despite all of the updates given to the SEC, many have speculated that Zynga might postpone a public offering until 2012.
Certainly, if the market started moving down again, all bets would be off for an IPO this November. That might not rule out this year, since stocks historically tend to rally in December.
Source: All Facebook
Monday, October 24, 2011