King to float on US Nasdaq
Company could be valued at $5 billion
The makers behind the hugely popular Candy Crush social game King are going to be a public listed company after filing IPO papers in the US, valuing the company at $5 billion.
The British based company will float on the Nasdaq exchange with many analysts saying it will be the biggest technology IPO in recent years.
King has lodged its pre-IPO “S-1” filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which allows for a loophole for rapidly-growing businesses such as Twitter to keep its IPO confidential.
Although there has been now official announcement on the move and indeed estimated revenue from the IPO, with King turning over £300 million in 2012 and still growing this year, the value of $5 billion is not unrealistic.
The problem with King is to convince investors to buy the stock with the memory of its US counterpart Zynga still fresh in the memory, which after many years of successful business as a private company went public and its stock started to crash with increasing costs to the company and its’ falling out with Facebook.
There are many parallels with both companies, both use Facebook to be hugely successful while a private company and both hailed at one time or another as the hero for social gamers by Facebook.
Investors will be weary of the float but the most important thing for King will be to show that they are not just a one trick pony with Candy Crush and keep delivering popular games to continue increasing profits.
