Facebook hit hard as Farmville creator Zynga misses targets
ONLINE gaming giant Zynga last night said that it had badly missed its financial targets, sending its share price down more than 40 per cent in after-hours trading.
The announcement from the creator of the Farmville and Cityville games dragged down shares of social networking firm Facebook, which relies on Zynga for around 15 per cent of its income.
The timing could not have been worse for Facebook, which is due to announce its first quarterly results as a public company later today. Zynga’s results sent Facebook’s shares down seven per cent to $27 in after-hours trading, down from mid-May’s IPO price of $38.
Zynga, founded by chief executive Mark Pincus, reported a 19 per cent increase in quarterly revenues to $332.4m (£214m) with a net loss of $22.8m. This compares to a profit of $1.4m for the same period last year.
The company blamed the poor performance of its established, money-making games on changes to Facebook’s algorithm, which it said spurred users to discover new games rather than repeatedly play existing Zynga offerings.