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King Games IPO Set, Company Pins Value At $7.6 Billion
The company behind Candy Crush Saga (and the target of gamer ill-will), King Games, is expecting to be worth as much as $7.6 billion when it goes public later this month.
King is expecting shares to be worth $21-$24 – a notable increase over the $5 billion valuation it originally filed with. The bump in value is probably due to the company's continuing success; it posted a $714.3 million profit in 2013 before taxes.
According to underwriters, shares will begin trading on March 26 under the NYSE symbol "KING."
As a point of comparison, when Facebook (where King earned most of its audience) went public, its shares were initially valued at $38.
(Source: Reuters)
Our Take
That's a lot of money, and it seems like the recent success of King Games justifies the high price tag. I'm not financial expert, but the company is going to need to work hard to keep that value up; just look at Zynga for a cautionary tale about how a company can be riding high on social gaming success one minute, and scrambling to stay afloat the next.
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