DIRECTIONS: Read the following and answer all the questions?
http://www.americanenglishconversation.com/
http://www.freeenglishconversation.blogspot.com/
http://www.grammar-help.blogspot.com/
http://freeenglishlessons-denise.blogspot.com/
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Online social game company Zynga plans to raise $1.5 billion to $2 billion in an initial public offering and could file paperwork with U.S. regulators as soon as Wednesday, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.
Zynga is expected to float only a small portion of its shares and the IPO could value the company as high as $15 billion to $20 billion, the source said.
Morgan Stanley is expected to lead underwriters on the IPO, with Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays and JPMorgan also expected to be among the underwriters, the source said.
The source declined to be named because the information is not public. The banks and Zynga declined to comment.
Zynga has also held talks with banks about a credit facility of at least $1 billion, according to CNBC, which first reported the news.
Zynga, the company behind a series of popular games on Facebook including FarmVille and Mafia Wars, has more than 215 million monthly active users, according to its website.
Its IPO would be the latest in a string of social media companies to take advantage of the equity markets.
LinkedIn Corp and China's Renren Inc were first to test the public markets in May. Today, LinkedIn is above its IPO price, but down from its highs, while Renren has lost nearly half of its value since its IPO.
Earlier this month, online radio company Pandora Media Inc raised the proposed value of its IPO by almost 50 percent. Two days after Pandora's stock debuted, it handed back its gains and was down nearly 20 percent.
Also this month, online daily deal site Groupon raced to file its IPO. The company said it wants to raise up to $750 million. Groupon disclosed in its filing that its staffing ballooned to more than 7,000 employees at the end of March from 37 in June 2009.
Investors are also setting their sights on IPOs for social media networks Facebook and Twitter.
(Reporting by Clare Baldwin, Nadia Damouni. Editing by Robert MacMillan, Bernard Orr)
Another month, another dismal read on consumer confidence.
The Conference Board measure came in below expectations for May, with both the present and future expectations measures dropping. The University of Michigan sentiment reading has strengthened some off the recessionary lows of 2009, but is still nowhere near the 40-year average.
In other words, the headline data screams that the consumer economy is muddling along without much improvement.
Investors, however, seem to be painting their own, more optimistic tale about the economy ahead.
Despite high unemployment, debt ceiling fears, riots in Greece, earthquakes in Japan and a host of other negative headlines, most of the American consumer related stocks are doing pretty darn well lately.
Consider that heading into today the S&P 500 (INDEX: .spx) is up 2.6 percent so far in 2011.
But look at these YTD returns:
The negative Nellies out there can point to their own stats: oil falling, home prices stagnant, NFIB small business survey still weak, Marriott (NYSE: mar) and the cruise company shares down, etc. And yes, we still have a warehouse full of economic problems.
This isn't about being an economic Pollyanna, and ultimately there are a host of reasons why people buy stocks. But returns are returns, and agree with it or not, the message of the market appears to be one of more confidence in the consumer, and thus the economy, ahead.
Online social game company Zynga plans to raise $1.5 billion to $2 billion in an initial public offering and could file paperwork with U.S. regulators as soon as Wednesday, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday?
A. TRUE
B. FALSE
This isn't about being an economic Pollyanna, and ultimately there are a host of reasons why people buy stocks. But returns are returns, and agree with it or not, the message of the market appears to be one of more confidence in the consumer, and thus the economy, ahead?
A. TRUE
B. FALSE
http://www.americanenglishconversation.com/
http://www.freeenglishconversation.blogspot.com/
http://www.grammar-help.blogspot.com/
http://freeenglishlessons-denise.blogspot.com/
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Online social game company Zynga plans to raise $1.5 billion to $2 billion in an initial public offering and could file paperwork with U.S. regulators as soon as Wednesday, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.
Zynga is expected to float only a small portion of its shares and the IPO could value the company as high as $15 billion to $20 billion, the source said.
Morgan Stanley is expected to lead underwriters on the IPO, with Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays and JPMorgan also expected to be among the underwriters, the source said.
The source declined to be named because the information is not public. The banks and Zynga declined to comment.
Zynga has also held talks with banks about a credit facility of at least $1 billion, according to CNBC, which first reported the news.
Zynga, the company behind a series of popular games on Facebook including FarmVille and Mafia Wars, has more than 215 million monthly active users, according to its website.
Its IPO would be the latest in a string of social media companies to take advantage of the equity markets.
LinkedIn Corp and China's Renren Inc were first to test the public markets in May. Today, LinkedIn is above its IPO price, but down from its highs, while Renren has lost nearly half of its value since its IPO.
Earlier this month, online radio company Pandora Media Inc raised the proposed value of its IPO by almost 50 percent. Two days after Pandora's stock debuted, it handed back its gains and was down nearly 20 percent.
Also this month, online daily deal site Groupon raced to file its IPO. The company said it wants to raise up to $750 million. Groupon disclosed in its filing that its staffing ballooned to more than 7,000 employees at the end of March from 37 in June 2009.
Investors are also setting their sights on IPOs for social media networks Facebook and Twitter.
(Reporting by Clare Baldwin, Nadia Damouni. Editing by Robert MacMillan, Bernard Orr)
Another month, another dismal read on consumer confidence.
The Conference Board measure came in below expectations for May, with both the present and future expectations measures dropping. The University of Michigan sentiment reading has strengthened some off the recessionary lows of 2009, but is still nowhere near the 40-year average.
In other words, the headline data screams that the consumer economy is muddling along without much improvement.
Investors, however, seem to be painting their own, more optimistic tale about the economy ahead.
Despite high unemployment, debt ceiling fears, riots in Greece, earthquakes in Japan and a host of other negative headlines, most of the American consumer related stocks are doing pretty darn well lately.
Consider that heading into today the S&P 500 (INDEX: .spx) is up 2.6 percent so far in 2011.
But look at these YTD returns:
- XLY consumer discretionary ETF (NYSE Arca: xly) up 5 percent, with Dow Transportation index (Dow Jones Global Indexes: .djt) up 4 percent
- XRT retail ETF (NYSE Arca: xrt) up 10 percent
- XHB homebuilder ETF (NYSE Arca: xhb) up 4 percent
- Office REITs Boston Properties (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: BO9-ff) & Vornado Realty (NYSE: vno) up 20 percent and 10 percent.
- Homebuilder Toll Brothers (NYSE: tol) up 10 percent
- Ethan Allen (NYSE: eth) up 6 percent
- Goodyear Tire (NYSE: gt) is up 36 percent
- Wyndham Worldwide (NYSE: wyn) up 11 percent
- H&R Block (NYSE: hrb) up 36 percent
- MasterCard (NYSE: ma), Visa (NYSE: v) & American Express (NYSE: axp) up 24 percent, 6 percent, and 15 percent respectively
- Consulting firm Accenture (NYSE: acn) up 24 percent
The negative Nellies out there can point to their own stats: oil falling, home prices stagnant, NFIB small business survey still weak, Marriott (NYSE: mar) and the cruise company shares down, etc. And yes, we still have a warehouse full of economic problems.
This isn't about being an economic Pollyanna, and ultimately there are a host of reasons why people buy stocks. But returns are returns, and agree with it or not, the message of the market appears to be one of more confidence in the consumer, and thus the economy, ahead.
Online social game company Zynga plans to raise $1.5 billion to $2 billion in an initial public offering and could file paperwork with U.S. regulators as soon as Wednesday, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday?
A. TRUE
B. FALSE
This isn't about being an economic Pollyanna, and ultimately there are a host of reasons why people buy stocks. But returns are returns, and agree with it or not, the message of the market appears to be one of more confidence in the consumer, and thus the economy, ahead?
A. TRUE
B. FALSE
No comments:
Post a Comment