Zynga Inc. went public on December 16 in the largest initial public offering by a technology company since that of Google Inc. in 2004. Zynga develops online games such as CityVille, FarmVille, Mafia Wars, and Words With Friends. The company offered 100 million shares at $10 each in one of the most anticipated tech IPOs of last year along with the debuts of LinkedIn Corporation [Deals & Suits, September 2011] and GroupOn, Inc. [Deals & Suits, February].
Zynga stock opened at $11 a share on the first day of trading on Nasdaq but closed at $9.50 and continued to struggle in the weeks thereafter, falling as low as $7.97. It closed at $13.30 on February 28, which gave it a market value of $9.3 billion.
