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Tag: q4

  • Zynga Announces Q4 And Year End Results, Will Bring More Games To Mobile In 2013

    After the beating Zynga took in 2012, nobody was really looking forward to its year end results. It was assumed that everything would be doom and gloom for the troubled social game developer. The good news is that revenue and DAUs/MAUs are up. Everything else is just kind of middling.

    Starting off with revenue, Zynga reported that full year 2012 revenue of $1.28 billion, which is an increase of 12 percent year-over-year. Quarter four revenue was at $311 million, which is pretty much flat year-over-year. Bookings in both full year and quarter four were down 1 percent and 15 percent respectively.

    “The biggest highlight of the quarter was seeing our team deliver a successful sequel in FarmVille2, a next generation social game that offers cutting edge 3-D experiences loved by millions of FarmVille fans,” said Mark Pincus, CEO and Founder, Zynga. “In 2013 we’re excited to bring this new class of social games to mobile phones and tablets and build a network that offers an easier, better way for people to play together.”

    On a year-over-year basis, DAUs and MAUs were up for Zynga. DAUs increased from 54 million in Q4 2011 to 56 million in Q4 2012. MAUs increased from 240 million in Q4 2011 to 298 million in Q4 2012. On a consecutive quarter basis, however, DAUs and MAUs were down 6 percent and 4 percent respectively.

    Even if its quarterly users were down, Zynga still had some of the top performing games on Web-based platforms. It also had five of top the 10 games on Facebook in December of last year. That’s just one month, however, and data from App Center showed Zynga had none of its games in the top five Facebook games of 2012.

    “Our team executed well in the fourth quarter and made important progress in building sustainable new revenue streams and further aligning our company around our best growth opportunities,” said David Ko, Chief Operations Officer, Zynga. “2013 will be a pivotal transition year and we are focused on achieving three strategic objectives: growing our franchises on mobile and web, expanding our network and maintaining profitability on an adjusted EBITDA basis. With 298 million monthly average users, including 72 million on mobile alone, Zynga already has the largest social gaming audience and remains the best positioned company to lead in building the future of social gaming.”

    Here’s a breakdown of the annual and fourth quarter results:

    2012 Annual Financial Summary

  • Revenue: Revenue was $1.28 billion in 2012, an increase of 12% on a year-over-year basis. Online game revenue was $1.14 billion, an increase of 7% on a year-over-year basis. Advertising revenue was $137 million, an increase of 84% on a year- over-year basis.
  • Bookings: Bookings were $1.15 billion in 2012, a decrease of 1% on a year-over-year basis.
  • Net loss: GAAP net loss was $209.4 million in 2012, which included $282.0 million of stock-based expense and $49.9 million of income tax expense driven by a $53.8 million charge related to accelerating the implementation of Zynga’s international structure.
  • Adjusted EBITDA: Adjusted EBITDA was $213.2 million in 2012, a decrease of 30% year-over-year, primarily due to increased cash investment in research and development, datacenters and infrastructure.
  • Non-GAAP net income: Non-GAAP net income was $58.2 million in 2012, a decrease of 68% year-over-year, primarily due to increased investment in research and development.
  • EPS: Diluted EPS was ($0.28) for the full year 2012, compared to ($1.40) for the full year 2011.
  • Non-GAAP EPS: Non-GAAP EPSwas $0.07 for the full year 2012, compared to $0.24 for the full year 2011.
  • Cash and Cash flow: As of December 31, 2012, cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities were approximately $1.65 billion, compared to $1.92 billion as of December 31, 2011. Cash flow from operations was $195.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, compared to $389.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2011. Free cash flow was ($114.3) million for the year ended December 31, 2012 as reported, or $119.4 million excluding the purchase of the company’s headquarters, compared to $137.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2011.

    • Fourth Quarter 2012 Financial Summary

  • Revenue: Revenue was $311.2 million for the fourth quarter of 2012, flat compared to the fourth quarter of 2011 and a decrease of 2% compared to the third quarter of 2012. Online game revenue was $274.3 million, a decrease of 3% compared to the fourth quarter of 2011 and a decrease of 4% compared to the third quarter of 2012. Advertising revenue was $36.8 million, an increase of 35% compared to the fourth quarter of 2011 and an increase of 19% compared to the third quarter of 2012.
  • Bookings: Bookings were $261.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2012, a decrease of 15% compared to the fourth quarter of 2011 and an increase of 2% compared to the third quarter of 2012.
  • Net loss: Net loss was $48.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2012 compared to a net loss of $435.0 million for the fourth quarter of 2011. Net loss for the fourth quarter of 2012 included $86.3 million of income tax expense driven by a $53.8 million charge related to accelerating the implementation of Zynga’s international structure and $14.9 million of stock- based expense compared to $530.0 million of stock-based expense included in the fourth quarter of 2011.
  • Adjusted EBITDA: Adjusted EBITDA was $45.0 million for the fourth quarter of 2012 compared to $67.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2011 and $16.2 million in the third quarter of 2012.
  • Non-GAAP net income: Non-GAAP net income was $6.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2012, down from non-GAAP net income of $37.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2011 and up from a non-GAAP net loss of $0.4 million in the third quarter of 2012.
  • EPS: Diluted EPS was ($0.06) for the fourth quarter of 2012 compared to ($1.22) for the fourth quarter of 2011 and ($0.07) for the third quarter of 2012.
  • Non-GAAP EPS: Non-GAAP EPS was $0.01 for the fourth quarter of 2012 compared to $0.05 for the fourth quarter of 2011 and $0.00 for the third quarter of 2012.
  • Cash and cash flow: As of December 31, 2012, cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities were approximately $1.65 billion, compared to $1.65 billion as of September 30, 2012. Cash flow from operations was $19.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2012, compared to $164.0 million for the fourth quarter of 2011. Free cash flow was $29.5 million for the fourth quarter of 2012 compared to $101.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2011.
  • Share Repurchase Program: As of December 31, 2012, Zynga repurchased approximately 5 million shares of common stock under its stock repurchase program. The remaining authorized amount of stock repurchases that may be made under this plan was approximately $188 million as of December 31, 2012.

    • I think we all expected this result. Zynga started off 2012 doing pretty well for itself, but it made a few bad decisions in investments early on, including the acquisition of OMGPOP for $200 million. The company was also forced to shut down a few studios, lay off over 100 employees and stop hosting numerous games, including the hotly anticipated, but ultimately ignored Mafia Wars 2.

    Zynga’s results may not have been great, but investors are somewhat pleased with its performance. The company’s stock was trading 7 percent higher at $2.74 at closing. It’s still rising in after-hours trading with the company’s share price currently at $2.88.

  • Zynga Earnings Released [Infographic]

    Zynga Earnings Released [Infographic]

    Online gaming giant, Zynga, released their fourth quarter and year-end earnings report on Valentines Day. That report, made easy-to-understand by the info graphic below, revealed some interesting things about Zynga.

  • In 2011, Zynga generated $1.14 Billion in revenue.
  • Zynga paid out $510 Million in stock-based compensation expenses in 2011, which kept it from showing a profit.
  • Zynga now has 54 million active daily users.
  • In Q4, Zynga made an average of $2.04 per user.

    • Zynga is famous for their collaborations with Myspace and Facebook to bring such games as Mafia Wars, Words With Friends, and FarmVille to the public.

    In addition to making money on online play, Zynga also uses its platform for social good. According to their site, Zynga players have raised more than $10 million for several international nonprofits since October 2009. Players have purchased virtual social goods within games like FarmVille, FishVille, Mafia Wars, and Zynga Poker that have benefitted earthquake victims in Haiti and to school lunch programs for children in Haiti.

  • Android Tablets Grab 10% Market Share From Apple’s iPad

    Android Tablets Grab 10% Market Share From Apple’s iPad

    The past year has been pretty good for Android OS, according to tablet figures released by Strategy Analytics.

    Global shipments of tablets hit an all-time high at 26.8 million units in Q4 2011, and Android snagged a substantial piece of the pie. Last quarter, Android snagged 39.1% of the market share, a 10% increase from Q4 2010 where they only had 29% of the market share.

    Shipments of Android tablets more than tripled year-over-year from 3.1 million to 10.5 million.

    Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “Android captured a record 39 percent share of global tablet shipments in Q4 2011, rising from 29 percent a year earlier. Global Android tablet shipments tripled annually to 10.5 million units. Dozens of Android models distributed across multiple countries by numerous brands such as Amazon, Samsung, Asus and others have been driving volumes. Android is so far proving relatively popular with tablet manufacturers despite nagging concerns about fragmentation of Android’s operating system, user-interface and app store ecosystem.”

    As you can see, Apple still maintained a strong lead in tablet sales, more than doubling their shipments in the last year. They did lose about 10% of market share to Android OS, however, falling to 57.6% worldwide.

    Apple’s shipment numbers are made even more impressive when you learn one little caveat of this study. The Android sales numbers refer to “sell-in” figures, meaning they include “sales” to retailers. Those may of may not actually translate to sales to customers. The Apple number (15.43 million) refers to actual sales to customers, not just iPads and iPad 2s that were shipped to be sold.

    But on the flip side, the study doesn’t include e-readers, even ones like the Nook Color that straddle the line between e-reader and tablet (and operate on Android OS).

    When you see reports like this, it’s always amazing that Apple is able to maintain such a hold on market share with basically one device (split into two forms). Are you warming up to Android OS tablets? Or do you think that iPads are still the king? Let us know in the comments.

  • Are Expectations For Google’s Success Too High For Its Own Good?

    Google released their earnings for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2011 yesterday and it was good. There wasn’t much to be disappointed about: they’re still making mega-gobs of money and more and more people seem to be flocking to their services.

    WebProNews gave you the run-down of Google’s conference where they revealed that their Google Sites revenues were up 29% over their fourth quarter earnings in 2010 and that they passed the $10 billion mark for quarterly earnings, a first in their history. Even their growth from the third quarter to the fourth quarter in 2011 was up 9%.

    Everything’s up! Everybody’s rich! If you work at Google you can’t even pour a cup of coffee in your office without the bass line from The O’Jay’s ‘For The Love Of Money’ playing automatically.

    So… why’re people disappointed with Google’s record-breaking earnings?

    Reuters reports that analysts “zeroed in on an 8 percent drop in cost-per-click, or money paid by marketers to the company for search ads, versus analyst estimates of a slight increase.”

    Mayuresh Masurekar, an analyst at Colins Stewart, told Reuters, “The major question is: Is this a one-time thing or is this something that is going to continue because the nature of the business has changed.”

    Even the tea leaf readers on Twitter echoed the sentiment.

    @savitz
    Eric Savitz    Google’s Q4 Miss: Street Cites FX Issues, Tax Rate, Weak CPC: No surprise here: Google shares are trading lower … http://t.co/wcjV0JYM 32 minutes ago via twitterfeed · powered by @socialditto

    @ZDNet
    ZDNet    Google stock plummets amid disappointing Q4 earnings http://t.co/j2CQyre8 18 hours ago via zdnet API · powered by @socialditto

    @cyndijeanabela
    Cyndi Abela, Realtor    Google shares dive 10% after Q4 earnings miss expectations http://t.co/cemyucYJ via @SVSJbizjournal 8 minutes ago via Tweet Button · powered by @socialditto

    @LisaTandem
    Lisa@Tandem    Google’s Q4 doesn’t measure up to past success – Marketing News | UTalkMarketing http://t.co/Q0nIpooX 19 minutes ago via Tweet Button · powered by @socialditto

    The results were disappointing enough that the speculators on Wall Street, in their esoteric wisdom, considered Google’s earnings to have missed expectations – a declaration that sent shares of Google falling more than 9% after the earnings were announced. The Wall Street Journal elaborated on the reaction from investors and said, “Though Google’s quarterly performance still represented a sequential increase, investors voiced concerns that its growth had decelerated from previous quarters. The company’s net revenue of $8.13 billion missed consensus estimates of $8.4 billion.”

    $270,000,000 is a ton of money, don’t get me wrong. It’s more money than I will see in my entire lifetime; I probably won’t even earn a quarter of that while I’m alive. It’s so much money that it might as well be Monopoly money. But still, in terms of Google Bucks, it’s only a little over 3% of that $8.13 net revenue they posted and when you’re parsing money expectations in the value of billions, should this really be enough of a “loss” to send Google shares into a decline?

    Based on the effect the news of Google’s earnings had on the stock market, the answer would be a resounding yes: all of these “concerns” expressed by shamans of Wall Street were enough to send Google’s shares dropping more than $57.

    Google’s shares have started to recover a little bit today, only being down $50.96 this morning, but all of this market speculation has got me wondering: what do people really expect of Google? Saying that Google “underperformed” despite their shares being some of the most valuable on the market and they posted significant increases revenues from not just last quarter but last year is puzzling and so I would really like to know exactly what analysts expect from Google? Would that $270 million of missed revenue really have made that much of a difference in the success of a company that is now making over $10 billion for quarterly earnings? Google still generating tons of revenue. What kind of bizarro market declares the earnings of billions but not enough billions to be a disappointment? It seems ludicrous.

    So what do you think? Is this a tempest in a tea cup that Wall Street is stirring with Google? Are expectations so high for Google right now that anything short of generating profits laced in Martian gold is considered a disappointment? Seriously, what do people expect from Google these days when something like making more billions of dollars doesn’t quite get it done? Let us know what you think in the comments.

    Like The O’Jays told you all: don’t let money ruin ya.