NEW YORK, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- King Digital Entertainment, the company behind Candy Crush Saga, has filed paperwork for an initial public offering with the SEC, after earning a staggering $568 million in profits last year.
The filing is for an initial offer worth up to $500 million and comes on the back of strong revenues and profits posted for 2013. Revenue was an unbelievable $1.88 billion for 2013, up from $164.4 million in 2012.
“We believe the inherently social nature of our games, our data-driven marketing processes, our cross-platform technology infrastructure and massive player network are key competitive advantages,” King said in the filing.
According to the filing an average of 128 million people played King's games 1.2 billion times a day for the month of December. Its profits for the forth quarter were $159 million, up from the loss of $1 million it posted in the first quarter of 2012.
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Apart from the popular Candy Crush, which accounts for 78 percent of King's total business and 86 percent of its mobile business, the game maker has other games including Pet Rescue Saga, Farm Heroes Saga, Papa Pear Saga and Bubble Witch Saga.
With most of its business coming from one viral game -- anything viral is known to have a shelf life -- it will be interesting to see if the company can draw interest from investors, who may be hesitant to invest in a company that is not very diversified. King is already seeing declining revenues and paying users for its flagship game, Candy Crush.
Other online and mobile gaming companies have gone public -- Zynga being the most popular of them. But at present Zynga is down 51 percent from 2011.
[SEC] [Fox Business] [The Atlantic]
