Social gaming giant Zynga has decided to list its shares on the tech-heavy NASDAQ stock exchange, according to a recent filing with the securities and exchange commission.
The NYSE has dueled with the NASDAQ stock market to attract high-profile tech IPOs, but it’s traditionally been a losing battle as the NASDAQ stock market regularly plays host to the largest tech companies in the world like Google and Apple. Zynga is easily the largest IPO planned this year, with the company already profitable.
But recent high-profile tech IPOs indicate that the NYSE is getting a foothold with tech companies. The NYSE nabbed Chinese social networking site Renren last month. Pandora, an online radio station and another high-profile tech IPO this year, also said it would list its shares on the NYSE. Business social network LinkedIn also listed on the NYSE and had one of the most successful IPOs this year so far.
Zynga’s filing also added new information that shows its top three games on Facebook have traditionally accounted for a majority of its revenue. The top three existing games for the company accounted for 93 percent, 83 percent, 78 percent and 59 percent of the company’s online game revenue in 2008, 2009, 2010 and for the six months ended June 30, 2011, respectively. Right now that’s FarmVille, CityVille and FrontierVille, which bring in $76.6 million, $46.6 million and $70.5 million respectively.
Zynga has built its social games business on Facebook, and it currently has more than 250 million monthly active users, according to AppData.
The company on Tuesday unveiled 10 new games as well as “Zynga Direct,” an initiative that includes distribution methods for its games outside of Facebook. Project Z, the first part of that initiative, is a separate website that uses Facebook connect to send players directly to Zynga games without having to go through Facebook’s main website.