King Digital, maker of 'Candy Crush Saga,' is shooting for a new record among video game companies with its March 26 IPO. Here are the top scores to beat.
By Bloomberg Rankings, Marcus Chan and Amelia Hennighausen
High scores
This isn't play money.
Over the past three decades, video game companies have raised billions of dollars in initial public offerings.
Of course, going public is one thing -- but keeping your stock alive in the fickle gaming business is quite another.
King Digital Entertainment, the creator of "Candy Crush Saga," recently filed for an IPO in the U.S. that would value the company as high as $7.6 billion. The offering is expected to price late in the day on March 25, with trading in the stock opening March 26.
With that in mnd, Bloomberg Rankings examined which gaming companies have scored the biggest IPOs on U.S. stock markets.
Worth noting: Of the 10 companies listed here, only three are still trading. The others were either acquired or delisted. Even for these companies, the stock market is not all fun and games.
Who took home the title? Was it the company behind "FarmVille," "Call of Duty" or "Pong"? Click through this slideshow to find out.
No. 10: Expert Software
Value of IPO: $32.4 million
First day of trading: April 11, 1995
Market status: Acquired
Back in the 90s, when a growing number of consumers were buying PCs for the first time and home Internet connections were slow, there was a demand for simple games. That's the market Expert Software played in, by selling budget PC software such as card games and crosswords for less than $20. The company also got into more action-packed games, such as "Sonic the Hedgehog."
Value of IPO: $35.8 million
First day of trading: Nov. 26, 1991
Market status: Acquired
Broderbund found big success with its best-selling "Myst" and "Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego" games. But finding a way to repeat that success proved difficult for the California company. In 1998, Broderbund's payroll was cut and its operations restructured after it was acquired by Learning Co.
Value of IPO: $43.5 million
First day of trading: May 3, 1993
Market status: Delisted
With major backers including Electronic Arts (EA) and Time Warner (TWX), 3DO saw its stock jump more than 30 percent on the first day of trading. The company's initial strategy was to sell a gaming console. But when sales flopped, 3DO shifted its focus to selling software titles such as "Might and Magic" and "Army Men."
Ten years after going public, the company founded by video-game pioneer Trip Hawkins ended up as a penny stock. In 2003, 3DO filed for bankruptcy protection and was delisted from the Nasdaq ($COMPX).
Value of IPO: $46 million
First day of trading: November 14, 2001
Market status: Delisted
The stock market game didn't last long for Bam! Entertainment. About three years after going public, the maker of games for the Nintendo 64 and Sony (SNE) PlayStation consoles was delisted by the Nasdaq ($COMPX). The San Jose, Calif.-based company suffered from new product delays and lower-than-expected sales of new titles in the U.S. and Europe.
Value of IPO: $48 million
First day of trading: June 1, 1983
Market status: Active
By Bloomberg Rankings, Marcus Chan and Amelia Hennighausen
This isn't play money.
Over the past three decades, video game companies have raised billions of dollars in initial public offerings.
Of course, going public is one thing -- but keeping your stock alive in the fickle gaming business is quite another.
King Digital Entertainment, the creator of "Candy Crush Saga," recently filed for an IPO in the U.S. that would value the company as high as $7.6 billion. The offering is expected to price late in the day on March 25, with trading in the stock opening March 26.
With that in mnd, Bloomberg Rankings examined which gaming companies have scored the biggest IPOs on U.S. stock markets.
Worth noting: Of the 10 companies listed here, only three are still trading. The others were either acquired or delisted. Even for these companies, the stock market is not all fun and games.
Who took home the title? Was it the company behind "FarmVille," "Call of Duty" or "Pong"? Click through this slideshow to find out.
No. 10: Expert Software
Value of IPO: $32.4 million
First day of trading: April 11, 1995
Market status: Acquired
Back in the 90s, when a growing number of consumers were buying PCs for the first time and home Internet connections were slow, there was a demand for simple games. That's the market Expert Software played in, by selling budget PC software such as card games and crosswords for less than $20. The company also got into more action-packed games, such as "Sonic the Hedgehog."
First day of trading: Nov. 26, 1991
Market status: Acquired
Broderbund found big success with its best-selling "Myst" and "Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego" games. But finding a way to repeat that success proved difficult for the California company. In 1998, Broderbund's payroll was cut and its operations restructured after it was acquired by Learning Co.
Value of IPO: $43.5 million
First day of trading: May 3, 1993
Market status: Delisted
With major backers including Electronic Arts (EA) and Time Warner (TWX), 3DO saw its stock jump more than 30 percent on the first day of trading. The company's initial strategy was to sell a gaming console. But when sales flopped, 3DO shifted its focus to selling software titles such as "Might and Magic" and "Army Men."
Ten years after going public, the company founded by video-game pioneer Trip Hawkins ended up as a penny stock. In 2003, 3DO filed for bankruptcy protection and was delisted from the Nasdaq ($COMPX).
Value of IPO: $46 million
First day of trading: November 14, 2001
Market status: Delisted
The stock market game didn't last long for Bam! Entertainment. About three years after going public, the maker of games for the Nintendo 64 and Sony (SNE) PlayStation consoles was delisted by the Nasdaq ($COMPX). The San Jose, Calif.-based company suffered from new product delays and lower-than-expected sales of new titles in the U.S. and Europe.
Value of IPO: $48 million
First day of trading: June 1, 1983
Market status: Active
Talk about high scores. Shares of Activision Blizzard (ATVI) hit their highest point in at least two decades last month. The largest
U.S. video-game publisher posted profit that beat analysts' estimates
on sales of its popular "Call of Duty" shooter series. The company has
had to weather the transition to new consoles and consumers' shift from
traditional video games to playing on mobile devices.
Value of IPO: $48 million
First day of trading: May 24, 1995
Market status: Acquired
First day of trading: May 24, 1995
Market status: Acquired
Long before the addictive building game "Minecraft," there was "SimCity," which allowed players to create their own cities. Maxis published
a series of "Sim" titles, including "SimCopter," which generated
controversy after it was discovered that one of the game's engineers hid
bikini-clad, kissing men in the simulation game. That didn't faze Electronic Arts (EA), which acquired Maxis for $125 million in stock two years after the company went public.
Value of IPO: $86.2 million
First day of trading: March 21, 2007
Market status: Active
The maker of mobile games "Dragon Slayer" and "Gun Bros" was considered an acquisition target after Zynga (ZNGA) bought OMGPOP in 2012. Nothing materialized for the San Francisco-based company.
Today, Glu's (GLUU) stock is up more than 130 percent over the past 12 months, but shares still trade for less than half the price they did when it went public.
First day of trading: March 21, 2007
Market status: Active
The maker of mobile games "Dragon Slayer" and "Gun Bros" was considered an acquisition target after Zynga (ZNGA) bought OMGPOP in 2012. Nothing materialized for the San Francisco-based company.
Today, Glu's (GLUU) stock is up more than 130 percent over the past 12 months, but shares still trade for less than half the price they did when it went public.
No. 3: Midway Games
Value of IPO: $102 million
First day of trading: Oct. 29, 1996
Market status: Delisted
The creator of "Mortal Kombat" delivered a near-fatality move on the IPO ranking, but that didn't keep it from facing its own mortality. The New York Stock Exchange delisted the Chicago-based video game publisher in 2009, the same year the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. A year earlier, billionaire Sumner Redstone sold his controlling stake in Midway.
Despite the popularity of its "Mortal Kombat" series, Midway struggled to come up with hit titles for game consoles. The company ended up selling most of its assets to a unit of Time Warner (TWX).
Value of IPO: $102 million
First day of trading: Oct. 29, 1996
Market status: Delisted
The creator of "Mortal Kombat" delivered a near-fatality move on the IPO ranking, but that didn't keep it from facing its own mortality. The New York Stock Exchange delisted the Chicago-based video game publisher in 2009, the same year the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. A year earlier, billionaire Sumner Redstone sold his controlling stake in Midway.
Despite the popularity of its "Mortal Kombat" series, Midway struggled to come up with hit titles for game consoles. The company ended up selling most of its assets to a unit of Time Warner (TWX).
No. 2: Atari
Value of IPO: $140 million
First day of trading: Dec. 13, 1995
Market status: Acquired
It shouldn't surprise you that the company behind "Pong" and credited with giving birth to the video game business also scored one of the industry's biggest IPOs.
But as is often the case in the tech world, pioneers usually get pushed aside by the next generation of innovators. Atari filed for bankruptcy protection last year seeking independence from its French parent, Atari SA, which was formerly named Infogrames.
No. 1: Zynga
Value of IPO: $140 million
First day of trading: Dec. 13, 1995
Market status: Acquired
It shouldn't surprise you that the company behind "Pong" and credited with giving birth to the video game business also scored one of the industry's biggest IPOs.
But as is often the case in the tech world, pioneers usually get pushed aside by the next generation of innovators. Atari filed for bankruptcy protection last year seeking independence from its French parent, Atari SA, which was formerly named Infogrames.
No. 1: Zynga
Value of IPO: $1 billion
First day of trading: Dec. 15, 2011
Market status: Active
The developer of "Mafia Wars" is also the don of video game IPOs. Still, that's little consolation for investors, who have watched the San Francisco-based social gaming company's stock plummet about 50 percent since its market debut.
Zynga (ZNGA), which also produces "CityVille," "FarmVille" and "Words With Friends," did see its stock jump in January after the company said it would cut 15 percent of its staff and buy mobile developer NaturalMotion for $527 million.
First day of trading: Dec. 15, 2011
Market status: Active
The developer of "Mafia Wars" is also the don of video game IPOs. Still, that's little consolation for investors, who have watched the San Francisco-based social gaming company's stock plummet about 50 percent since its market debut.
Zynga (ZNGA), which also produces "CityVille," "FarmVille" and "Words With Friends," did see its stock jump in January after the company said it would cut 15 percent of its staff and buy mobile developer NaturalMotion for $527 million.
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