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Zynga stock falters, holds on first day of trading
Zynga stock finally roared out of the gate and on to the trading floor yesterday at $10 a share, but investors weren't hugely impressed with the social gaming company. The stock started up a dollar at $11, and then dropped back down two, and then thirty, and then fifty cents during the day, leveling off at $9.50, which Forbes says was thanks mostly to "a stabilizing bid by Zynga's underwriters," which means Zynga's investors stepped in and bought up enough stock to keep the price up. So what happened? Shortly put, Zynga's stock wasn't really worth what it was priced out at. An initial public offering is designed to be priced a little low, in order to drum up demand for a company's stock from the public (not to mention raise some money). But Zynga went high and, as a result, didn't quite get the graph it wanted today. They didn't sell the FarmVille, so to speak -- ZNGA will likely be trading fine on Monday (and $9.50 is fine for the highly competitive gaming industry; THQ is sitting down at 75 cents right now). But Zynga's hype phase appears to be over. Now the company needs to prove it can sell more than just cow clickers.
AAPL shares survive rebalancing on Nasdaq today
Last month the stock index Nasdaq announced that it would be rebalancing the weighting of AAPL shares to better reflect the actual number of shares floating on the market. At the time, AAPL accounted for 20.5 percent of the Nasdaq. After the rebalancing today, AAPL now accounts only for 12.5 percent of the Nasdaq. When Nasdaq made the announcement, it issued a warning that the rebalancing might affect AAPL shares in the short term due to fund managers readjusting their holdings. However, it seems that any negative effect on AAPL's share price was negligible. Apple closed down only 1.1 percent today to end at $346.45. Many see AAPL advancing to upwards of $540 a share by January, and some even think Apple will be the world's first trillion dollar company. Disclaimer: The author holds a position in AAPL. TUAW does not provide investment advice; consult an expert before buying or selling equities.
Rumor: Apple iPad to be delayed?
Over at Fortune, Philip Elmer-Dewitt relays speculation that the iPad might be delayed. Citing a Monday report by Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek, he writes that a manufacturing bottleneck may be affecting iPad production. According to the report, Apple production could be as low as 30% of its target goal (300K units versus its target of a million) and concludes that Apple might delay the iPad launch for a month due to the "...limited number of units available in March." During Apple's January event, CEO Steve Jobs promised the new iPad device would hit shelves within 60 days, with a 3G-enabled unit to follow approximately 30 days later. To date, Apple has yet to offer a firm release date and it is not yet taking pre-orders just a few weeks before the device is due. Manufacturing delays now joins FCC approvals as a speculative reason for why Apple has not yet announced dates or pre-orders. So far, this speculation has done precisely nothing to affect Apple stock prices. AAPL is up 4.15 at last check, holding at 208.77.Thanks, BrettUpdate An Apple PR rep told Wired that "iPad will be available in late March."
IBM gearing up to lay off over 100000 American employees?
We'll admit, even we're a bit frightened that immensely intelligent humanoid bots may one day oust us from these seats, but according to whispers going around at IBM's HQ, something just as momentous could be going down as early as this year. Shortly after Lenovo told 1,400 of its US-based employees to politely hop off the payroll, IBM's LEAN plan could call for over 100,000 American workers to be canned in favor of (surprise, surprise) hiring overseas. Already, the firm has laid off 1,300 employees in 2007, but according to a recent report, an ongoing "planning meeting" for how to handle the company's Global Services could eventually axe "up to 150,000 US jobs" while hiring cheaper labor in China and India. Interestingly, this news could actually be sweet music to Wall Street, at least in the short term, but we can't imagine how this logistical nightmare will ever bode well for Big Blue's future.
