Social Media Companies Compared

Atlanta, GA 5/24/12 (StreetBeat) -- Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD), Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA), CrowdGather Inc. (OTCBB: CRWG) and other social media companies have a wide array of valuations in the public markets. In this article, we’ll compare those valuations to determine the most underpriced and overpriced plays in the burgeoning industry.


* Data from Google Finance and Yahoo! Finance; Revenue Growth % for CRWG represents increase in Q3 FY 2012 revenue compared to Q3 FY 2011.

CrowdGather: The Most Undervalued Play

CrowdGather Inc. (OTCBB: CRWG) appears to be the most undervalued play in the sector, with solid revenue growth and a low price-book ratio. Currently, investors can purchase the stock for slightly less than the value of its assets minus its liabilities, and benefit from strong revenue growth that could translate to profitability on the bottom line over the near-term.

Aside from these statistics, the company has also seen a number of other qualitative factors that could make it a good buy. The firm’s CEO, Sanjay Sabnani, has been a consistent buyer of the stock and has even retired a significant number of shares. In fact, the insider’s cost basis for acquiring these shares is significantly higher than the current share price.

From a growth prospective, CrowdGather also has a lot more blue-sky potential. It’s far easier for a $16.88 million company to double its size and deliver outsized investor returns than it is for a $5.1 billion or $92.8 billion company to do the same. As a result, investors may find that this stock has greater upside potential than many other more popular players.


Popular Forums Owned by CrowdGather Inc.

High Multiples Could Benefit Smaller Stocks

Many companies in the social media space trade with lofty price-earnings multiples, such as Facebook’s (NASDAQ: FB) 108.4x and LinkedIn’s (NYSE: LNKD) 604.3x multiples. While these are higher than other tech companies, such as Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) 18.44x or Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) 13.84x multiples, they are very positive signs for smaller companies that are approaching profitability.

For instance, CrowdGather is rapidly narrowing its net loss, and with high price-earnings multiples throughout the industry, the company could see its share price significantly higher if it were valued along the lines of the other Internet company multiples once it achieves profitability. And this could mean outsized returns for shareholders.

These multiples are largely driven by recent mergers and acquisitions in the space, such as Zynga’s buyout of the private company OMGPOP at a lofty price or Facebook’s purchase of Instagram for around $1 billion. Meanwhile, venture capital investments at similarly high multiples are also driving valuations higher throughout the sector.

Investing in the Social Media Sector

Many social media companies have experienced strong run-ups in valuation thanks to new IPOs, venture capital investments and M&A. However, some investors believe that these valuations may eventually prove too high to justify, especially in an industry that constantly changes. As a result, investors may be better of seeking undervalued plays with similar growth prospects.

CrowdGather Inc. (OTCBB: CRWG) is an owner and operator of a network of online communities that generate hundreds of millions of page views each month. With a market capitalization of just over $16 million, investors can purchase this stock for less than the value of its net assets and still benefit from the growth in the social media space.

Please contact www.thestreetbeat.com for interest in our latest investor relations platform the “CEO Interview Series” with its host Steve Kanaval. The package includes a one-on-one interview with a seasoned industry professional; published segment to our web site with embedded audio/video file; and a compressed file that can be easily e-mailed out to your current and/or potential investors. Please e-mail bflautt@gmail.com or call (662) 392-0740 for pricing and scheduling.

StreetBeat Disclaimer

Distributed by Viestly

Social media investment bubble has popped

Atlanta, GA 5/22/12 (StreetBeat) – That fizzing sound you just heard coming from Wall Street in the wake of the Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) initial public offering was the sound of a bubble deflating.

You may have missed it due to the angry shouts of those who have lost big money on the most-hyped stock offering in history, even as Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and other insiders are laughing all the way to the bank.

Now that frothy air is accelerating out of the valuations of Internet social media companies, those investors who got in late to the party are worried how bad things might get. Many are selling first and asking questions later.

If you own shares of mutual funds focused on tech or growth stocks, those investors likely include you, unfortunately, since it was institutional money managers who were left holding the bag on Facebook. If you don’t own those funds, pat yourself on the back for avoiding the disappointment that social media investing has produced in 2012.

These stocks are now officially in correction mode.

As of this writing, in the last six trading days, $14 billion has been erased from the combined market caps of Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) , Zynga Inc. (Nasdaq: ZNGA +2.12%), LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD +8.47%), Groupon Inc. (Nasdaq: GRPN -1.53%) and Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP -1.25%). That’s a 10.4% drop for the sector, which as of Tuesday was valued at $120 billion in aggregate.

Before this month, the sector had mostly tread water as big gains in LinkedIn offset losses in Zynga and Groupon.

Regular readers of this column will remember that last August, I suggested that the value of Groupon had peaked, after the company’s amended regulatory filings showed that its losses were widening despite a 10-fold jump in revenue.

That column came the month after Marc Andreessen, the new rising star of Silicon Valley venture capitalists, said of tech-company valuations: “On a 30-year basis, these things are cheap.”

But few investors have a three-decade time horizon, and the meaning of the word “cheap” isn’t the same for VCs — who get their shares in private transactions — as it is for investors who pay retail stock prices.

Private investors poured $1.4 billion into Internet companies in the first quarter of 2012, according to the National Venture Capital Association. It was the eighth straight quarter that Web startups garnered more than $1 billion, which means Andreessen is far from alone in his bullish assessment.

But with Facebook and the other young Internet companies now all failing to find firm bids in the public markets, it’s just a matter of time before the froth starts to come out of the valuations of private Internet companies as well.

The questions now are: Will the correction become a full-blown bear market? And how much will the social media bubble look like the dot-com bubble?

Fear and greed

As with other bubbles — from tulips to dot-coms — the social media boom was created by greed and inflated by fear.

The greed that started this bubble came from those in the private investment community who — by design, of course — are out to maximize profits. People invest money to make money, after all, so it’s no surprise that VC firms have rushed in to fund so many social media startups.

The fear that inflated it emanated from professional money managers who were terrified of missing out on the “hot” IPOs of the past 12 months; that fear is ironic when you consider these fund managers are, for the most part, playing with other people’s money — in millions of brokerage and retirement accounts — and thus have no real skin in the game.

Now that the VC-fed bubble in social media stocks has met the sharp anger of all those money managers counting up their Facebook losses, look for the public markets to start picking winners and losers in the social media industry. The rising tide that has lifted all social media boats is clearly ebbing.

Companies that can’t produce annual net income despite billions of dollars in annual sales — including Groupon and Zynga — are going to end up as also-rans or takeover fodder at valuations well below their current prices. But don’t grieve for their insiders, who cashed out big even before their disastrous IPOs.

At the same time, there’s a reasonable chance that Facebook and LinkedIn will survive as public companies — given that every new technology market produces two or three winners. (For example, think Intel and AMD in chips; Dell, H-P and Apple in PCs; Oracle, IBM and Microsoft in enterprise software; or Google and Amazon.com in Internet services.)

P/E watch

But it will take both Facebook and LinkedIn a long time to grow into their current valuations.

Based on Tuesday’s closing share price of $34.03 a share, Facebook is trading at about 65 times expected 2012 earnings of 52 cents a share, according to the consensus earnings estimates compiled by Thomson.

LinkedIn is even pricier. At a price of $96 a share, it’s trading at 143 times expected 2012 earnings of 67 cents a share.

Given that froth, even the best of the social media stocks might have much further to fall.

Please contact www.thestreetbeat.com for interest in our latest investor relations platform the “CEO Interview Series” with its host Steve Kanaval. The package includes a one-on-one interview with a seasoned industry professional; published segment to our web site with embedded audio/video file; and a compressed file that can be easily e-mailed out to your current and/or potential investors. Please e-mail bflautt@gmail.com or call (662) 392-0740 for pricing and scheduling.

StreetBeat Disclaimer

Distributed by Viestly

Overhyped Social Media Stocks Highlight Value in CrowdGather (OTCBB: CRWG)

Palm Beach, FL 5/17/12 (StreetBeat) – There is a lot of activity surrounding social media stocks with the Initial Public Offering of Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) coming on Friday. The new listing, which could see the company valued at as much as $100 billion, has investors and analysts already concerned that the world’s largest social network could be overvalued from the get-go. Rather than try to ride that wave, savvy investors are looking to other social media and networking-related stocks that may offer a larger upside potential. An assessment of book value to price and shareholder equity/deficit of companies such as LinkedIn Corporation (NASDAQ: LNKD); IZEA, Inc. (OTCQB: IZEA); and CrowdGather Inc. (OTCBB: CRWG) reveals some stark differences and showcases where true value propositions may be found.

LinkedIn has become a household name and posted overall gains since its IPO in May of 2011. As the world’s largest professional network, revenues more than doubled in the first quarter; jumping net income to $5 million from $2.1 million in the year prior. The challenge is that LNKD already holds a huge market capitalization of $11.6 billion and is at the top-end of its price range since it IPO’d. Even though it has raised guidance and boosted revenue, many analysts still feel that the market cap is heavily weighted on where the company can be in 5 years or more, which has mushroomed the market cap to a position that the company may not be able to meet expectations for growth. The company has built a balance sheet that is nothing shy of impressive, though, with $873 million in assets and only $248 million in liabilities; giving them a book value of $624 million and a book value per share of $6.05. Total stockholder equity rings-in at $951 million. Shares of LinkedIn are trading at $111.95 each.

IZEA has certainly been making waves across the web as well recently. The company is focused on social media sponsorships (SMS), a growing segment within social media, where a company compensates a social media publisher to share sponsored content within their social network. It’s a broadening space, but the company seems undercapitalized at present. IZEA has amassed a net deficit of $18.1 million since inception and only has $225,000 in cash after a nearly $4 million loss in 2011. Book value per share is (-0.047), yet shares are trading at $0.37 giving IZEA a market cap of $14.31 million. IZEA has experienced momentum in its share price based upon provided guidance for significant growth in revenues for this coming fiscal year, but it does not have an appealing balance sheet.

CrowdGather Inc., a leading network of forum communities on the Internet and developer of innovative advertising technologies to monetize them, has been unnoticed by investors and may offer substantial upside, as justified by their finances and business model. The structure of being focused on forums may give CrowdGather a competitive position amongst Internet companies that are engaged in monetizing traffic from advertisements placed alongside user generated content like Twitter, Yelp, or Facebook. Forums, one of the original social media platforms, attract a different type of crowd that somewhat eschews places like those where posts are extremely short or social in nature. Forum users are focused on long form, in-depth discussions that serve as a valuable resource for people seeking knowledge about specific topics. While not as widely publicized, the industry is thriving with users. CrowdGather not only owns highly trafficked forums, but it also provides several easy-to-use platforms for members to build their own forum for their topic of choice. As per Google Analytics, during the third quarter ended January 31, 2012, CrowdGather’s traffic averaged 231 million monthly page views and 16.8 million monthly unique visitors across all properties.

While other Internet microcaps are burning through money like it is free, CrowdGather has a very high gross margin business that should make it easier for them to deliver bottom line results when revenues exceed expenses. In the most recent quarter, the company realized revenues of $549,750 for the three months ended January 31, 2012, as compared to revenues of $380,212 for the three months ended January 31, 2011. The absolutely stunning part: cost of revenue for the three months ended January 31, 2012 was $4,793, as compared to cost of revenue of $44,186 for the three months ended January 31, 2011. CrowdGather delivered a gross profit margin of almost 99% in their last quarterly results filing. If the company is able to maintain margins anywhere close to this as they scale, shareholders could see significant net income and EPS from the company in the future.

Insiders are not missing the big picture with CrowdGather as evident in the buying activity last year at higher prices than current levels. While other Internet micro caps are diluting to raise funds, CrowdGather is sitting on cash. Further, beta testing for its ad server is nearly complete with a launch planned for this fall, which could increase revenue momentum over the long term as the company will be able to more effectively target all of their hosted forums for advertisers seeking a specific vertical or demographic.

At the end of the latest quarter, CrowdGather had roughly $2.7 million in cash and $16.8 million in net shareholder equity. There are very, very few companies that post positive shareholder equity in the Over The Counter markets. Total liabilities only equal $83,000; giving CrowdGather a book value of 29 cents per share. Shares closed on Tuesday, May 15, 2012 at 28 cents each which equals a market cap of $16.3 million.

Breaking it down:

Taking the facts and ignoring the hype often results in a clearer picture of value. Pitting CrowdGather toe-to-toe with any of its micro cap Internet or Social Media peers shows a small, but sound business strategy with solid margins and wise financial sense. It also shows that the company is only trading at the value of its cash and assets without any real regard for its growth prospects. The numbers don’t lie.

Please contact www.thestreetbeat.com for interest in our latest investor relations platform the “CEO Interview Series” with its host Steve Kanaval. The package includes a one-on-one interview with a seasoned industry professional; published segment to our web site with embedded audio/video file; and a compressed file that can be easily e-mailed out to your current and/or potential investors. Please e-mail bflautt@gmail.com or call (662) 392-0740 for pricing and scheduling.

StreetBeat Disclaimer

Distributed by Viestly

Friday’s biggest gaining and declining stocks

Northern, WI 5/4/12 (StreetBeat) -- Shares of the following companies made notable moves in U.S. premarket trading Friday:

Gainers

DigitalGlobe Inc. (NYSE: DGI +13.46%) rallied 29% after GeoEye Inc. (Nasdaq: GEOY +3.00%) said it proposed to acquire the satellite imagery company in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $792.3 million. GeoEye’s price of $17 a share amounts to a premium of 26% over DigitalGlobe’s closing price of $13.52 on Thursday. GeoEye shares rose 4%.

LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD +8.16%) jumped 10% after the firm’s latest quarterly financial report soared past Wall Street forecasts. LinkedIn said it expects second-quarter revenue of $210 million to $215 million, ahead of the analyst estimate of $208 million in a survey by FactSet Research.

Decliners

Body Central Corp. (Nasdaq: BODY -43.53%) shares sank 36% after the apparel retailer’s profit outlook fell short of expectations. The company expects second-quarter earnings of 26 cents to 28 cents a share on $80 million to $82 million in sales. A consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters pegs earnings at 36 cents a share on sales of $87 million.

Synergy Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: SGYP -21.27%) shares dropped 23% after the developer of drugs to treat gastrointestinal disorders said it had priced a public offering of 10 million shares of common stock at $4.50 a share, which was below Thursday’s closing price of $5.69.

Please contact www.thestreetbeat.com for interest in our latest investor relations platform the “CEO Interview Series” with its host Steve Kanaval. The package includes a one-on-one interview with a seasoned industry professional; published segment to our web site with embedded audio/video file; and a compressed file that can be easily e-mailed out to your current and/or potential investors. Please e-mail bflautt@gmail.com or call (662) 392-0740 for pricing and scheduling.

StreetBeat Disclaimer

Distributed by Viestly

LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD) Leaps 10% on Earnings Beat, Rosy View

Northern, WI 5/4/12 (StreetBeat) -- Shares of LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD: 118.79, +9.38, +8.57%) soared 10% Friday morning as Wall Street cheers the professional social network’s bullish results and upbeat guidance.

A slew of analysts hiked their price targets on the recently-public company a day after it released stronger-than-expected first-quarter results and unveiled a $118.8 million acquisition.

“LinkedIn is disrupting both the online and offline job recruitment markets, and deeper corporate penetration and increasing member engagement will drive strong results going forward,” Doug Anmuth, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM: 42.32, -0.69, -1.60%), wrote in a research note, according to Reuters.

Mountain View, Calif.-based LinkedIn said late Thursday it earned $5 million, or 4 cents a share, last quarter, up from $2.1 million, or breakeven, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, it earned 15 cents a share, easily beating forecasts for 9 cents a share.

Revenue raced 101% higher to $188.5 million, topping the Street’s view of $178.6 million.

LinkedIn also raised its full-year guidance, projecting 2012 sales of $880 million to $900 million. Even the low end of that new range would exceed estimates from analysts for $876.8 million. Likewise, LinkedIn projected second-quarter revenue of $210 million to $215 million, compared with the Street’s view of $207.9 million.

In response to the upbeat numbers, Anmuth of JPMorgan raised his price target on LinkedIn to $135 from $90 and maintained an “overweight” rating.

LinkedIn also unveiled a cash-and-stock deal to acquire content sharing company SlideShare for $118.75 million.

Shares of LinkedIn soared 9.88% to $120.22, tacking onto their 2012 surge of 69%.

LinkedIn shares have nearly tripled since going public at $45 last year.

Later this month social-networking leader Facebook is set to launch a massive initial public offering that could value the Mark Zuckerberg company at nearly $100 billion. By comparison, LinkedIn’s market cap stood at just under $11 billion as of Thursday’s close.

Please contact www.thestreetbeat.com for interest in our latest investor relations platform the “CEO Interview Series” with its host Steve Kanaval. The package includes a one-on-one interview with a seasoned industry professional; published segment to our web site with embedded audio/video file; and a compressed file that can be easily e-mailed out to your current and/or potential investors. Please e-mail bflautt@gmail.com or call (662) 392-0740 for pricing and scheduling.

StreetBeat Disclaimer

Distributed by Viestly

Social Networking Stock Alert: LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD) Trades Up on Fourth Quarter News

Tallahassee, FL 2/10/12 (StreetBeat) -- LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE:LNKD) is trading up at $84.64 8.25(10.80%) 10:10AM EST, with a morning high of $86.10.

The Company reported its financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2011 on the close yesterday.

Summary of Results
•Revenue for the fourth quarter was $167.7 million, an increase of 105% compared to $81.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2010
•Net income for the fourth quarter was $6.9 million, compared to net income of $5.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2010; Non-GAAP net income for the fourth quarter was $13.3 million, compared to $5.2 million for the fourth quarter of 2010. Non-GAAP measures exclude tax-affected stock-based compensation expense and tax-affected amortization of acquired intangible assets
•Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter was $34.4 million, or 21% of revenue, compared to $16.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2010, or 20% of revenue
•GAAP EPS for the fourth quarter was $0.06; Non-GAAP EPS for the fourth quarter was $0.12
•For the full year 2011, revenue increased 115% to $522.2 million from $243.1 million. GAAP EPS increased to $0.11 from $0.07 and Non-GAAP EPS increased to $0.35 from $0.24. Adjusted EBITDA increased to $98.7 million from $48.0 million

"Q4 once again exceeded our expectations for member engagement and business growth. It was a fitting end to a memorable year in which we reinforced our position as the pre-eminent professional network on the web," said Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn. "We believe continued focus on our members and technology infrastructure positions us well for accelerated product innovation in 2012."

About LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD)

Founded in 2003, LinkedIn connects the world's professionals to make them more productive and successful. With more than 150 million members worldwide, including executives from every Fortune 500 company, LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network on the Internet. The company has a diversified business model with revenues coming from member subscriptions, marketing solutions and hiring solutions. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, LinkedIn has offices across the globe.

About InvestorIdeas.com:
InvestorIdeas.com is a leader in investor stock research by sector. Sectors we cover include; cleantech and renewable energy stocks, biotech stocks, mining and gold stocks, energy stocks, water, tech, defense stocks, nanotech, agriculture and gaming.

Follow Investorideas.com on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/Investorideas
Follow Investorideas.com on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/Investorideas

Disclaimer: Our sites do not make recommendations. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. We attempt to research thoroughly, but we offer no guarantees as to the accuracy of information presented. All Information relating to featured companies is sourced from public documents and/ or the company and is not the opinion of our web sites. This site is currently compensated by featured companies, news submissions and online advertising. www.InvestorIdeas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp
Source – Investorideas.com

800-665-0411 - dawn@investorideas.com

StreetBeat Disclaimer

Distributed by Viestly

Social Networking Stocks Continue Run with Facebook Frenzy; FFN, GRPN, LNKD, RENN

Northern, WI 2/3/12 (StreetBeat) - www.InvestorIdeas.com, a global investor research portal, specializing in sector research including tech stocks issues an investor alert for social networking stocks for the morning of February 3rd as the Facebook IPO frenzy continues to drive the sector. Tech stocks were strong in yesterday’s session, with significant gains in the Social Media/Networking stocks.

Facebook’s pending $5 Billion IPO has investors buying into the sector ahead of its market debut expected in May. Most retail investors know the chance of participating in the IPO are slim and none so they are entering the game with some of the other well known players in the space.

Social Networking stocks Snapshot Trading February 3rd

FriendFinder Networks Inc. (NasdaqGM: FFN ) is becoming a best friend to investors this week, trading up again this morning, at 1.3950, up 0.0650(4.89%) 9:54AM EST with a high of $1.47

Groupon, Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) is trading up at $23.79, up 0.71(3.07%)

Linkedin Corporation (NYSE:LNKD) is moving up, trading at $79.93, up 2.95(3.83%)

Renren Inc. (NYSE: RENN ) is gaining in morning trading, at $5.66, up 0.24(4.43%) 9:58AM EST

SINA Corporation (NASDAQ:SINA) is trading at$76.26, up 0.96(1.27%)

Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) is running, trading at$13.24, up 0.85(6.90%)

Read the entire S1IPO filing for Facebook: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/000119312512034517/d287954ds1.htm

Research Social Networking stocks:
Visit the Investorideas.com Social Networking Stocks Directory preview page:
http://www.investorideas.com/TSS/Social_Networking_Stocks.asp

Become an Investor Ideas Member Today - Get 24/7 access to our exclusive members only - 13 stock directories; energy, renewable energy, mining stocks, water, biotech. Added bonus for members - New Tech Stocks Directory for Social Networking and Cloud Computing Stocks
Visit the Investor Ideas membership page to learn more at: http://www.investorideas.com/membership/


Sign up for the free investor news letter and get stock alerts in leading sectors! http://www.investorideas.com/Resources/Newsletter.asp


About InvestorIdeas.com:
InvestorIdeas.com is a leader in investor stock research by sector. Sectors we cover include; cleantech and renewable energy stocks, biotech stocks, mining and gold stocks, energy stocks, water, tech, defense stocks, nanotech, agriculture and gaming.

Follow Investorideas.com on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/Investorideas
Follow Investorideas.com on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/Investorideas

Disclaimer: Our sites do not make recommendations. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. We attempt to research thoroughly, but we offer no guarantees as to the accuracy of information presented. All Information relating to featured companies is sourced from public documents and/ or the company and is not the opinion of our web sites. This site is currently compensated by featured companies, news submissions and online advertising. www.InvestorIdeas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp
Source – Investorideas.com

800-665-0411 - dawn@investorideas.com, cvanzant@investorideas.com

Watch Our New Daily Update!! Click Here!!

StreetBeat Disclaimer

Distributed by Viestly

Zynga IPO Values Company as High as $9.04 Billion

Tallahassee, FL 12/2/11 (StreetBeat) -- Zynga Inc plans to sell an 11.1 percent stake in a scaled-back initial public offering that would value the Facebook game maker at as much as $9 billion on a fully diluted basis. The leading social games maker plans to sell 100 million new shares at between $8.50 and $10 each, according to a U.S. regulatory filing on Friday. At the midpoint price, the IPO could raise $925 million, which would make it the largest from a U.S. Internet company since Google Inc (Nasdaq:GOOG) raised $1.7 billion in 2004.

Five-year-old Zynga made its name on viral games such as "FarmVille," among the most popular on the Facebook social network. While Zynga's games are free to play, the company makes money from selling virtual items -- such as tractors and weapons -- that players then use.

Based on a fully diluted share count of 904 million, which includes existing shares and stock options, the IPO price values Zynga at $7.7 billion to $9.04 billion. In a filing two weeks ago, the company said a third-party analysis had valued it at $14.05 billion. While the valuation has been cut, Zynga would still be among the largest publicly traded U.S. game developers after it debuts on Nasdaq under the "ZNGA" symbol.

Video game developer Activision Blizzard Inc (Nasdaq:ATVI) currently has the industry's highest market value of $14.2 billion, followed by Electronic Arts Inc (Nasdaq:ERTS) at $7.7 billion.

Zynga's debut will follow IPOs this year from Groupon Inc (Nasdaq:GRPN) and LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD), which helped revive a market that had sputtered in recent years. Facebook is gearing up to go public next year.

Mark Pincus, a serial entrepreneur before he founded Zynga, will hold a class of shares with 70 times more voting power than the regular stock that will be sold in the offering.

Google, one of the early investors in Zynga, will be offering about 1.7 million shares, according to a regulatory filing. Other companies selling shares include Institutional Venture Partners and Union Square Ventures. Deep-pocketed rivals from Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) to Electronic Arts are starting to muscle in on Zynga's turf.

The company said its IPO represented 14.3 percent of 699 million common shares, excluding restricted stock.

StreetBeat Disclaimer

Distributed by Viestly

Facebook gearing up for 2012 IPO

Palm Beach, FL 11/29/11 (StreetBeat) --Facebook, the world's largest Internet social network, is preparing for a initial public stock offering next year, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Facebook is exploring raising $10 billion, the Wall Street Journal said on Monday. It hopes the offering will value the company at more than $100 billion, according to WSJ, which first reported the story. Facebook's Chief Financial Officer, David Ebersman, had discussed a public float with Silicon Valley bankers but founder and Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg had not decided on any terms and his plans could change, the Journal said.

The social network, which now claims more than 800 million members after seven years of explosive growth, has not selected bankers to manage what would be a very closely watched IPO. But it had drafted an internal prospectus and was ready at any moment to pull the IPO trigger, the Journal cited people familiar with the matter as saying.

At $100 billion valuation, the company started by Zuckerberg in a Harvard dorm room would have double the valuation of Hewlett-Packard, the Journal said. A formal S-1 filing could come before the end of the year, though nothing was decided, the newspaper added. A Facebook representative declined to comment.

Silicon Valley start-ups have this year begun to test investor appetite for a new wave of dotcoms. If it does debut in 2012, Facebook's IPO would dwarf that of any other dotcom waiting to go public.

"Farmville" creator Zynga has filed for an IPO of up to $1 billion. In November, daily deals service Groupon debuted with much fanfare, only to plunge below its IPO price within weeks. LinkedIn and Pandora are now also trading significantly below the levels their stocks reached during their public debuts earlier this year.

Facebook has become one of the world's most popular Web destinations, challenging established companies such as Google Inc and Yahoo Inc for consumers' online time and for advertising dollars. Facebook does not disclose its financial results, but a source familiar with the situation told Reuters earlier this year that the company's revenue in the first six months of 2011 doubled year-on-year to $1.6 billion.

Eric Feng, a former partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers who now runs social-networking site Erly.com, said that the cash Facebook will get in an IPO would allow them to make more acquisitions and refine or work on new projects, such as a rumored-Facebook phone or a netbook.

Having tradeable stock will also allow Facebook to attract more engineering talent who might have been more attracted to the company in earlier days when it was growing faster but now perhaps might be attracted to other companies. "It'll be a powerful bullet for them," said Feng.

Investors have been increasingly eager to buy shares of Facebook and other fast-growing but privately-held Internet social networking companies on special, secondary-market exchanges. Facebook said in January that it will exceed 500 shareholders this year, and that in accordance with SEC regulations, it will file public financial reports no later than April 30, 2012.

StreetBeat Disclaimer

Distributed by Viestly

Is Social Media Really an Asset Class?

Swan Lake, MS 11/22/2011 (StreetBeat) – It's amazing how quickly Wall Street can throw together an exchange-traded fund. Last week, Global X launched the Social Media Index (SOCL) ETF, which began trading Tuesday, although on very low volume.

That this ETF is coming from a company with "global" in its name is fitting: After all, the index would be sparse if it only comprised U.S.-based social media companies. Only a handful of such operators have gone public over the past year, such as Groupon (GRPN), Pandora (P) and LinkedIn(LNKD).

But more than one-third of the ETF's portfolio includes Chinese-based operators. Some include Tencent Holdings and Sina(SINA).

While social media is a global phenomenon, the Chinese market has seen several IPO disasters, such as Renren(RENN). A big reason has been intense competition, but there also have been questions about accounting.

As other top social media companies come public -- like Twitter, Zynga and Facebook -- Global X will likely include them in the index. But this will be done after the IPO. In other words, investors of the ETF won't get the first-day "pop."

There seems to be little doubt that social media will continue to grow. But is it really an asset class? Probably not. Besides, as seen with implosions of companies like MySpace, the risks are certainly great.

Social media should be a small part of a person's portfolio as an opportunity to juice things up -- but it should be done with lots of caution.

StreetBeat Disclaimer

Distributed by Viestly

LargeCap Stocks to Watch Today

Tomahawk, WI 11/4/2011 (StreetBeat) – LinkedIn posted its first quarterly loss since its May initial public offering despite revenue more than doubling during the time period.

The business social network also said it will raise up to $500 million in another stock sale.

Shares were falling 10.3% to $78.50.

Starbucks beat Wall Street profit expectations for its fiscal fourth-quarter by a penny on better-than-expected revenue. But the coffee chain gave a fiscal 2012 outlook below analysts' expectations as it expects rising commodity costs.

The stock was rising 3.9% to $43 in premarket trading.

Alcatel-Lucent, the technology company, posted improved third-quarter profit but cut its profit and sales forecasts for 2011 on uncertainty in Europe.

The stock was falling 13.4% in premarket trading to $2.39.

AIG posted its biggest quarterly loss since 2009, hurt by declining markets and an impairment charge on its plane-leasing subsidiary.

AIG also announced a plan to buyback $1 billion worth of common shares.

AIG shares were off 3.4% to $23.80.

CBS said third-quarter earnings topped analysts' expectations, but revenue, despite rising 2% to $3.37 billion, came in below forecasts.

CBS said sales benefited from new online streaming partnerships.

The stock was down less than 1% to $24.38 in premarket trading.

Google said it is altering its search algorithm to include more time sensitive, relevant content. The change, which comes as Google's usefulness as a real-time search site is challenged by Facebook and Twitter, will affect about 35% of all searches.

Google previously incorporated real-time search into its results through a partnership with Twitter, but this feature was disabled in July when the two failed to renew their contract.

The stock was down 49 cents to $597.01.

Bank of New York Mellon is negotiating with federal prosecutors to resolve a civil suit over currency trades that could pave the way to settlements of $2 billion in lawsuits, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Earnings reports are expected from Berkshire Hathaway and KKR.

StreetBeat Disclaimer

Distributed by Viestly