Zynga holds its biggest press event

London: Pushing regulatory rules has become de rigeur when American internet firms prepare to go public. The infamous Playboy interview with Larry Page and Sergey Brin published during the ‘quiet period' before Google's 2004 flotation, and more recently Groupon's leaked memo spring to mind.

It should be no surprise, then, that one of Silicon Valley's hottest firms held its biggest ever press event during its enforced ‘quiet period'. Zynga filed to go public four months ago, and co-founder Mark Pincus knows that a lot has happened since. Wall Street gyrations delayed some $9 billion (Dh33 billion) worth of IPOs, not to mention Zynga's 90 per cent fall in second quarter profits to $1.4 million, reported just four weeks ago.

Frustratingly for the 150 journalists invited to Zynga's new San Francisco HQ, questions involving numbers were almost always rebuffed. All others were referred to the company's S-1 filing.

But, as is often the way, the internet darling came out top. Zynga emerged as a company semi-autonomous from the internet giants Facebook and Apple on which it has built its business.

— Guardian News & Media Ltd