It's been rumored for months but the Facebook-based game publisher Zynga could be close to finally filing for that long awaited public stock offering. CBNC.com reports via unnamed sources that the company could file papers with the US Securities and Exchange Commission as early as Wednesday. The story also adds that Zynga hopes to bring in $1.5 billion to $2 billion as a result of launching the IPO and will bring in Morgan Stanley as the bank to lead the deal into place. Officially a spokesperson for Zynga won't comment on the reports.
Zynga's IPO launch could add up to a company with a valuation of between $15 billion to $20 billion or possibly more, according to the report. The company has been riding high in the past few years thanks to the massive popularity of its games that are linked via Facebook such as Farmville, Frontierville, Mafia Wars, and Cityville. Most recently Zynga launched its first strategy combat game Empires and Allies. On Sunday, Venture Beat reported that Empires and Allies now has over 39 million registered players in just its first 25 days. That's currently more players than the far more established game FarmVille.
And the company may be building another game that could compete with one of the PC's biggest game franchises. Fusible.com reported a few days ago that there is evidence that Zynga has bought the URL to Familyville.com. If true that means that Zynga could be making a people sim game in the same fashion as Electronic Arts's Sims franchise. EA recently announced at E3 that it plans to launch a Facebook game, The Sims Social, later this year.
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