The market loves buyouts and mergers. Hell, the market loves unlikely rumors of buyouts and mergers.
On Monday, Wunderlich Securities analyst Blake Harper suggested Yahoo might consider buying social-game developer Zynga. Harper’s report sent Zynga stock (ZNGA) to $3.97, its highest price in months, even though the analyst himself said the move is unlikely.
Zynga shares are slowly losing their altitude now that the market has taken the time to analyze the scenario and company board member Bing Gordon spoke skeptically of the move on Bloomberg.
“To some degree, there’s something magical about being independent in games,” Gordon told Bloomberg. “What entertainers want to do is play to a big audience — and what they really don’t want to do is play to a constrained audience. So as long as you have a big audience, a private owner can be better than a public owner, and give you a better chance to get your name in lights.”
Zynga is currently independent and can release games wherever it chooses. A buyout could lock Zynga games exclusively to Yahoo’s sites.
The acquisition rumor also ignores a potentially large stumbling block: Zynga chief executive Mark Pincus. Pincus has majority control and calls the shots at the company. If he wants to continue doing that, then he’d likely kill any proposals from Yahoo.