Friday, July 1, 2011

Avalon Ventures, Jeffrey Katzenberg To Benefit From Zynga IPO

San Francisco-based social games maker Zynga, the firm behind the popular FarmVille Facebook game, filed for an IPO Friday, with several Southern California investors potentially beneficiaries of any future IPO success. According to Zynga, it is looking to raise up to $1 billion on the public markets. Among the investors who may benefit from a successful IPO are La Jolla-based Avalon Ventures, run by Kevin Kinsella, Stephen Tomlin, Richard Levandov, Brady Bohrmann, Doug Downs and Jay Lichter, which before the IPO owned 6.1 percent of Zynga. Another beneficiary of a successful IPO would be Dreamworks' Jeffrey Katzenberg, who is listed as owning 388,410 shares of the firm's Class B stock. Katzenberg sits on the company's board.

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