Zynga to Raise Money at a $7 Billion to $9 Billion Valuation

Zynga is said to be interested in raising some new capital. Despite being profitable and having raised a significant amount of money already, Zynga is apparently looking to get about $250 million at a valuation of $7 billion to $9 billion.

That's the highest figure for the company so far, but considering the numbers we've been seeing for the several hot companies of the moment, Twitter, Groupon, not to mention Facebook, they're not that surprising.

Zynga is apparently talking with potential investors about a new funding round, according to the Wall Street Journal. These are early talks which may not finalize in an actual deal.

If it does happen though, investors will be getting a tiny slice of the company, for quite a lot of money. But there's no shortage of people wanting to get involved with the fast-rising company.

In fact, the wave of activity around the hot companies of the moment indicates that there are plenty of would be investors clamoring to get in early, before a likely IPO.

But Zynga doesn't really need the money. It has raised plenty already, over half a billion. It's also making some $400 million a year in profit, that's the estimate for 2010, on a revenue of $850 million. The figure is sure to go over $1 billion this year.

It has been spending a lot though, it is hiring at a fast pace, the company is now at about 1,500 employees, some direct hires some through acquisitions.

It's acquisitions that are probably Zynga's second biggest spending, it has been buying roughly one company a month recently. They're usually small game studios, which don't fetch a huge amount of money, but it adds up little by little.

With Twitter worth roughly the same, Groupon close by and Facebook now worth $60 billion or more, it's easy to forget that some of the largest video game companies, which have been around for decades, are not worth that much more than Zynga. Activision Blizzard, for example, the biggest video maker is valued at around $13 billion.