Facebook needs FarmVille, and Zynga's soaring stock shows it

Zynga's stock price is the highest it's ever been since its initial public offering (IPO) in December at around $12.40, as of this writing. Why, when the stock had struggled since the company's Nasdaq debut? It looks like Zynga can thank Facebook. Ever since the social network revealed that Zynga contributed 12 percent of its revenue during its IPO filing, the social game maker saw a major spike in its stock price.

And if that's the case, shouldn't Facebook be the one doing the thanking? At this point, it's safe to say that smiley faces and virtual hugs are deserved all around. The developer behind hits like CityVille and CastleVille contributed $445 million to Facebook's $3.71 billion in revenue for 2011, and Zuckerberg and crew are not willing to give that up.

"If the use of Zynga games on our Platform declines, if Zynga launches games on or migrates games to competing platforms, or if we fail to maintain good relations with Zynga, we may lose Zynga as a significant Platform developer and our financial results may be adversely affected," Facebook said in its filing with the Security and Exchanges Commission.

While it's already known that Facebook and Zynga's relationship was more than coincidental, that relationship has clearly grown into something far more symbiotic. At this point, we call for the two to legitimize their relationship. Puppies are always nice.

[Via The Guardian]

Are you shocked at all by the spike in Zynga's stock price? What do you think the two companies' symbiotic relationship will mean for Facebook games? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.