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????遲（兩天）動手也總比從來不嘗試一下強。 ????7月1日，社交游戲巨子Zynga公司申請進行10億美元的首次公開募股（IPO），摩根士丹利公司（Morgan Stanley）和高盛公司（Goldman Sachs）被列為其IPO主要承銷商。參與此次公開募股的其他銀行還包括美國銀行美林公司（BoA Merrill Lynch）、巴克萊資本公司（Barclays Capital）、以及Allen & Co等。迄今Zynga公司尚未選擇交易或定單符號（Zillow公司已經占用了“Z”）。 ????2010年，Zynga的凈收入為9,000萬美元，營業收入為5.97億美元。2011年第一季度，營業收入創下了驚人的2.35億美元，但利潤率卻從2010年的約15%一下子跌到了近5%。 ????該公司近95%的營業收入源自虛擬產品銷售。這塊業務從2010年首季到2011年首季期間增長了127%；同期，廣告營收額亦增長了321%，但是，這塊業務在整體營業額中所占比例仍然微乎其微。 ????也許在顯示公司實力方面，現金數量是最有說服力的數字。Zynga報告說，截至3月底，該公司的銀行存款為10億美元。這比2010年底其擁有的現金量增加了2億美元。 ????Zynga創始人兼首席執行官馬克?皮克斯是公司最大股東，手中握有16%的股份。他的年薪為30萬美元，而公司二號人物歐文?范?納塔的年薪為20萬美元。皮克斯還負責以個人信件的形式起草了IPO申請中的招股說明書，這與Groupon首席執行官安德魯?梅森上個月起草該公司的S-1文件著實有些類似，唯一區別在于皮克斯的話聽起來一本正經，而非滿含譏諷之辭。 ????在Zynga公司，透過親友，我們能感受到自己與我們開發的游戲之間的切身關系。我的姐夫雖然要撫養5個孩子，根本沒有業余時間可言，但卻跟他的朋友們一起瘋狂地玩我們的游戲Words。我對此表示由衷的贊賞。就在幾個月前，我的孩子們決定，躲貓貓是他們最喜愛的游戲。盡管我們不太可能繼續完善這款游戲，但我盼望著能很快跟他們一塊兒玩Zynga游戲。等到他們讀高中時，毫無疑問，他們會使用谷歌（Google）搜索，也會在Facebook上與朋友們分享各類信息，而且他們很可能會在亞馬遜（Amazon）上大量購物。但他們想玩游戲時，我希望Zynga還在，這就是我現在的計劃。 ????其他重要股東還包括：風投機構KPCB公司（Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers）：11%、機構風險合伙人公司（Institutional Venture Partners,IVP）：6.1%、鑄造集團（Foundry Group）：6.1%、阿瓦隆風險投資公司（Avalon Ventures）：6.1%、DST集團（DST Group）：5.8%、廣和投資公司（Union Square Ventures）：5.5%。上述有些機構早已通過二級交易將手中的股票回賣給了Zynga。比如，Zynga就從廣和投資公司手中回收了價值4,500萬美元的股票。鑄造集團和阿瓦隆公司亦分別將2,200萬美元和2,100萬美元的股票賣給了Zynga。皮克斯于今年3月將價值1.09億美元的有價證券變現。 ????職業社交網站LinkedIn創始人里德?霍夫曼是Zynga最早的投資人，同時也是該公司董事會的成員。他手中握有約為0.6%的股份。 |
????Better (two days) late than never. ????Social gaming giant Zynga today filed for a $1 billion initial public offering. Morgan Stanley (MS) and Goldman Sachs (GS) are listed as lead underwriters. Others bankers include BoA Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs and Allen & Co. The company has not yet selected an exchange or ticker symbol (Zillow has dibs on "Z"). ????Zynga reports $90 million of net income in 2010 on around $597 million in revenue. The revenue figures are a staggering $235 million for the first quarter of 2011, but the profit margin dropped from around 15% in 2010 to just around 5% last quarter. ????Nearly 95% of the company's revenue comes from selling virtual goods, which has increased 127% between Q1 2010 and Q1 2011. Advertising revenue increased 321% over the same period but, again, makes up a very small part of the whole. ????Perhaps the most impressive figure is cash on hand. Zynga reports it has nearly $1 billion in the bank as of March 31, which is a couple hundred million more than it had at year-end 2010. ????Zynga founder and CEO Mark Pincus is the company's top shareholder, with a 16% position. He makes $300,000 per year in salary, while his number two, Owen Van Natta, makes $200,000. Pincus also leads the prospectus off with a personal letter, kind of like what Groupon CEO Andrew Mason did in that company's S-1 last month. The only real difference is that Pincus goes more for sincerity than snark: ????At Zynga, we feel a personal connection to our games through our friends and family. I love that my brother in-law, who has five kids and no free time, religiously plays our game Words with Friends.... My kids decided a few months ago that peek-a-boo was their favorite game. While it's unlikely we can improve upon this classic, I look forward to playing Zynga games with them very soon. When they enter high school there's no doubt that they'll search on Google, they'll share with their friends on Facebook and they'll probably do a lot of shopping on Amazon. And I'm planning for Zynga to be there when they want to play. ????Other significant shareholders include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (11%), Institutional Venture Partners (6.1%), Foundry Group (6.1%), Avalon Ventures (6.1%), DST Group (5.8%) and Union Square Ventures (5.5%). Some of those firms already have sold shares back to the company via secondary transactions. Union Square, for example, had over $45 million worth of shares repurchased. Foundry Group and Avalon Ventures sold back around $22 million and $21 million, respectively. For his part, Pincus liquidated $109 million worth of securities this past March. ????Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn (LNKD) founder who first seeded Zynga and sits on its board, appears to have around a 0.6% position. |
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????資料來源：Zynga S-1文件 ????Zynga表示，首次公開募股的絕大多數收益將用于公司一般用途，而不是提現分給現有股東。 ????此外，該公司在申請文件中還表示，目前它雇用2,200多名員工，其中約64%都是在最近一年才加入公司的。 ????上周二我們曾撰文表示，對Facebook來說，Zynga上市有可能成為耐人尋味的市場測試。這倒并非是就Facebook自身進行首次公開募股的前景而言，而是Facebook已成為其他公司拓展業務的正規平臺，公設市場到底如何看待這件事。這就有點兒像：現在軟件開發商如何看待微軟公司（Microsoft）或者蘋果公司（Apple）的操作系統。 ????Zynga已經認識到Facebook對其業務模式的重要性。其最大的風險因素是：“如果我們不能與Facebook保持良好的合作關系，那么我們的業務就會遭殃。”此外，Zynga還認識到，“事實上，我們的全部營業收入和玩家都來自于Facebook平臺。” ????盡管Zynga并未透露任何與上市時間有關的信息，但保險的說，直到勞動節后（9月的第一個周一——譯者注）該公司才有可能真正上市。因此，如果屆時該公司的實際上市價遠遠高于10億美元的話，請千萬不要大驚小怪。Zynga的IPO申請文件顯示，該公司希望通過首次公開募股，募集到15億～20億美元的資金。這讓我不禁想到，眼下10億美元的保守報價不過是虛晃一槍罷了。 ????最后，下圖是源自Zynga S-1文件的字云（使用Wordle創建而成）： |
????Source: Zynga S-1 ????The company says that most of the IPO proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, rather than cashing out existing shareholders. ????It reports more than 2,200 employees -- approximately 64% of whom have been hired within the past year. ????As we wrote earlier this week, Zynga could be an interesting market test for Facebook. Not for the social network's own IPO prospects, but for how the public markets will view Facebook as a legitimate platform for other companies to build businesses on top of. Kind of like how the Microsoft or Apple operating systems are viewed today for software makers. ????For its part, Zynga acknowledges the importance of Facebook to its business model. Its top risk factor is: "If we are unable to maintain a good relationship with Facebook, our business will suffer." Moreover, Zynga acknowledges that it generates "substantially all of our revenue and players through the Facebook platform." ????The company does not say anything about timing, but it's a safe bet that Zynga doesn't plan to actually go public until sometime after Labor Day. At that point, don't be surprised if the offering is actually much larger than $1 billion. Initial reports were that it was seeking to raise between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, which makes me think the current cover price is a conservative placeholder. ????Finally, here is a word cloud from the S-1 (created by using Wordle): |
????譯者：大海
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