Upon its Nasdaq review, Zynga (ticker symbol: ZNGA) was trading at $11, but then fell to around $9.50 before hitting $10 at press time. The reception to the offering, designed to raise about $1 billion, was a stark contrast to recent social media IPOs, including LinkedIn, whose stock price doubled on its IPO day in May and Groupon, whose shares jumped as much as 40% after the company went public Nov. 4.
The reason for Zynga's comparatively weak performance so far wasn't immediately apparent. Zynga, which derives the vast majority of its income from games on Facebook, had filed to go public in July, but postponed the event when the market soured over the summer. The Nasdaq hasn't regained the ground it has lost since July, but has recovered a bit since its six-month nadir Oct. 11. Meanwhile, the index, like the Dow, was slightly up in trading Friday.