Zynga has become the latest social media company to file for an initial public offering, following the likes of LinkedIn and Groupon.
In its SEC registration statement filed on Friday, the video games developer says it plans to raise $1 bn, although this is just a placeholder figure for the filing and could change.
The filing reveals the company made a profit of $90.6 mn last year, following a loss of $52.8 mn in 2009.
Zynga has grown fast on the back of developing games, such as FarmVille, for Facebook. Its revenues for 2010 stood at $597.5 mn, up from $121.5 mn in 2009.
Mark Pincus, Zynga’s founder and CEO, emphasizes the importance of taking a long-term perspective in his letter to prospective shareholders.
‘We will prioritize innovation and long-term growth over quarterly earnings,’ he writes.
‘We will not make short-term decisions that sacrifice our core values or veer from our long-term vision.’
In the initial filing, Zynga did not reveal which US exchange it planned to float on.
Traditionally, tech companies have chosen to list on NASDAQ, but that route is now less certain following the decision of a slew of technology companies, including LinkedIn and Pandora Media, to list on the NYSE.
