Zygna founder ready to cash in $277million after selling stocks in the social gaming company
The founder of Zynga, the online game maker behind ‘FarmVille’ and other popular Facebook pastimes, is set to cash in $227 million today when he sells 16.5 million shares in the company.
Zynga shareholders will sell shares worth about $591 million, with CEO and founder Mark Pincus set to receive a staggering sum himself.
Shareholders will sell a total of 43 million shares in the online game maker the company said today.
Reaping rewards: CEO Mark Pincus is set to get $277 when he sells his Zynga shares today
The move comes after the company went public in December since when Zynga shares have risen by a third – one share was valued at $13.76 yesterday.
And with 16.5 million of them 46-year-old Pincus is sitting pretty.His net-worth is currently estimated to be $1.8 billion, according to Forbes.
Pincus, a Havard Business graduate and married father-of-two, launched three other online companies before he founded Zynga in 2007 – naming it after his pet bulldog.
The techie tycoon lives in San Francisco with his wife, Ali, who runs an online homeware company called One Kings Lane, and their twin daughters.
The couple put two homes in San Francisco up for sale at the end of last year – one six bedroom mansion was put on the market for $8.9 million and their second smaller apartment was available for $1.9million.
Addictive: Zynga, has a co-dependent relationship with Facebook and is famous for creating games such as Farmville and Friends With Words
The company, which is based in San Francisco, is credited with creating some of the internet’s most addictive games – most of which are played on Facebook.
About 230 million people every month play Zynga games such as ‘Farmville’, ‘CityVille’ and ‘Texas HoldEm Poker’.
Zynga makes most of its revenue by charging small amounts of money to buy virtual items in its games.
It also makes some money from advertising and partnerships with companies such as Netflix or Vistaprint on special offers.
Fun and Games:The Zygna headquarters in San Francisco is where the magic happens
Revenue grew to $597 million in 2010, from $121 million in 2009 and $19 million in 2008.
The rapidly expanding company currently employs approximately 2,300 people and launched their first puzzle – Hidden Chronicles – earlier this year.
Zynga has a co-dependent relationship with Facebook and probably wouldn’t exist if it hadn’t tailored its games for the social network’s audience of more than 500 million users.
Of course in turn, Zynga games give people another reason to keep make frequent visits to Facebook so they can tend to virtual farms, play online poker or watch over virtual cities.
Windfall: Zynga shareholders will sell shares worth $591million
Private equity firm Union Square Ventures is among the selling stockholders.
Zynga waived a lock-up arrangement to facilitate the offering.Investors are typically expected to wait about six months after an initial public offering to sell their shares.
Pincus will have 35.9 percent of the voting shares after the sale, down from 36.5 percent now.
Good day in the office: Employees of the social gaming giant cheer the company’s success last year
Zynga has three classes of stock.Class A shares carry one vote each, Class B seven votes and Class C 70 votes.
Zynga which is trying to minimize its dependence on Facebook, announced its biggest-ever acquisition on Wednesday, buying OMGPOP, maker of the popular game Draw Something.
The company said it paid $180 million for OMGPOP.
Morgan Stanley and 카지노사이트 Goldman Sachs are the lead underwriters for the offering.