King,the developer of Candy Crush Saga and other immensely popular Facebook and mobile games, is seeking to raise its profile higher than many of its peers by becoming an IPO. The London-based video game company has filed for a public offering in the United States, according to a report from the New York Times.
The company is looking to succeed where other mobile game developers such as Zynga and social media websites such as Facebook have failed by going public and offering stock options on the New York Stock Exchange. While King transforming into an IPO could be one of the biggest debuts for a video game company, the company should face less pressure than other similar businesses have in the past, due to its relatively smaller size. Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and JPMorgan Chase have been retained to lead the offering.
Despite King's smaller profile than Facebook, Twitter (which is also expected to go public) and Zynga, it's still prospected to be valued as a multibillion dollar company when King hits the stock exchange. This success is mainly fueled by Candy Crush Saga, a free to play game for Apple and Android smartphones that manages to constantly be the highest grossing app on both operating systems.
King has been in operation since 2003, and has been profitable since 2005. The company claims to have more than 225 million monthly active users. To put that number in perspective, that is about 20 million more people than the entire population of Brazil playing games made by King every month.
King follows the popular formula of offering games for free and making money on in-game purchases. For example, Candy Crush Saga offers players the chance to buy the ability to play new levels for 99 cents if they do not want to wait for invites from friends.
Candy Crush Saga is not the only popular game the company has made. Pet Rescue Saga sits eighth among the top grossing apps for Apple.
However, King will have an uphill battle to become a successful IPO after the recent failures of Facebook and Zynga. Facebook famously went on the market and quickly lost stock value once it became an IPO. Zynga, another video game developer, which was responsible for Words With Friends, went public, but could not maintain profits and began to close down office locations around the United States.
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