NEW YORK — Online
games company Zynga reported a net loss in the first quarter because of
stock compensation expenses, but adjusted earnings were better than
what Wall Street expected.
Zynga Inc. said Thursday that net loss was $85.4 million, or 12 cents
per share, in the January-March period. It had earnings of $16.8
million, or about break even, a year earlier when it was still a private
company.
Adjusted earnings of 6 cents per share beat Wall Street's
expectations. This figure excludes one-time items such as $133.9 million
in stock-compensation expenses.
Revenue grew 32 percent to $321 million from $243 million.
Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of 5 cents per share on revenue of $318 million, according to a poll by FactSet.
Zynga's games include "CityVille" and "Words With Friends." The
company recently bought OMGPop, the maker of the mobile game "Draw
Something." This helped boost the number of monthly active users to 292
million, from 236 million a year earlier.
For all of 2012, Zynga expects adjusted earnings of 23 cents to 29 cents per share. Analysts were forecasting 27 cents.
The San Francisco-based company's stock climbed 8 cents to $9.50 in
after-hours trading. The stock had closed up 31 cents at $9.42. Zynga's
stock priced at $10 when the company went public in December.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Last week's news that a computer virus had found its way into the America's drone fleet was less settling than the fact that the Air Force had no idea where it came from or how to fix it. "We keep wiping it off, and it keeps coming back," a source told Wired's Noah Shachtman, who originally broke the story. "We think it's benign. But we just don't know." The good news this week is that they think they've found the source and insist that the virus is "more of a nuisance than a threat." The bad news is it came from a small, possibly banned portable hard drive infected with "malware that is routinely used to steal log-in and password data from people who gamble or play games like Mafia Wars online," one source told the Associated Press. (Updated below: Mafia Wars maker Zynga disputes this claim.) This whole fiasco is starting to sound like an Onion article.
In fact, The Onion wrote a similar story two years ago! It's about the Pentagon losing an external hard drive packed containing all of their favorite teevee shows and possibly some confidential military secrets. "The department's inspector general has vowed a full investigation, and military police have tightened security around other stores of highly sensitive data, including the file cabinet with all the takeout menus," the article jokes.
Back in reality, the military is struggling on the cybersecurity front. This latest incident is another embarrassing breach in a year marred by embarrassing breaches. This summer LulzSec hacked into a series of government websites--from U.S. Senate to the CIA--just for fun. However, the real scare came in August when a security software firm revealed that a number of American companies and government agencies had been targeted over the course of five years in one of the world's largest and most comprehensive cyber attacks to date. The Pentagon didn't even know they'd been hit.
As a result, the military has been clamping down its computer networks and scurrying to find vulnerabilities. The AP reports that portable hard drives like the one that infected the drone fleet are "common sources of computer infections" and as such "the Pentagon has banned the smaller flash drives from most Defense Department computers because of the escalating cyber threats." It's unclear if the hard drive containing what we'll call the Mafia Wars Malware was contraband, but soldiers love of gaming is becoming a source of concern. As the Pentagon continues to expand its cybersecurity program, the AP says that experts at the Defense Cyber Crime Center near Fort Meade are extending the scope of their testing to include "a vast expanse of computer technology--from cell phones and tiny flash drives to iPads, Wii consoles and Nintendo games."
All of the Pentagon's new efforts should be comforting, but we're still left wringing our hands. In hustling to build futuristic technology to keep our military a step ahead of our enemies, the military is tripping over its own feet. What's more is the fact that they're spending taxpayer dollars doing it. Rachel Maddow is very upset.
Update: Zynga is disputing the AP's Mafia Wars connection. "We have no indications that suggest Zynga's Mafia Wars was connected with the malware that infected the Pentagon's drone program," Zynga said in a statement. "We actively take steps to maintain and protect the trust of our customers, including educating our players about the risks associated with visiting untrusted sites and downloading untrusted applications. Both of those actions can increase the risk of getting infected with malware."
It's worth noting that malware is often wrapped in fake packaging to make people think that they're getting an update or an email from a particular game or company. This is a type of hoax known as "phishing" that's designed to steal log-in and password information.
Original post is HERE
Sorry for being late.. my boy is sick these few days..
You know that little child will have fever if they have new mole teeth, learning to walk, learning to talk, etc..
Still, making me feel sad to see him moaning from pain.. Get well soon, my baby..
So, I am posting the update of Game News.. We have the Announcement of the Coming Soon feature (which are happening now) and also the Release Notes 6.
The announcements :
This weekend we have the Free Property Upgrade event.. feel free to choose which Property that you want to be upgraded for once.
They have also explained about Secret Drops, you will be able to open 3 cases per day. So be wise to choose which items that you want to grab from your friend's wall!
Prized Pigs? Let's see if we have more info about this event..
Release Notes 6
Wow! Love the feature of the new Message Center! I really want to have it back, where we can accept requests in-game.. no need to go back and forth of FaceBook request page and accept the gift or invite request one by one..
They also fixed some bugs.. and one improvement in Boss Fight..
Hope they have covered all the annoying bugs! And thanks for the hard works, Zynga team!
PS : Thanks to Kareem and Hayden for the info.. Special thanks to Bossy Don for the info, apologize that I don't see your message to my FaceBook.
Nothing more I can say... You can see this note on your Game News section..
I just want to point out that we can not get the armor parts dropping from jobs or fight.. The only way is by helping your friends on their building request OR by publishing your own help.
Of course, you can always use your Reward Points to buy them.. but it's not a wise choice!
You can see it on the Game News section... Release Notes tab...
Ok, so they have fixed some issues.. I found the interesting part that Vegas jobs and fights now dropping collection items more often! Still we can not get the 7th items easily...
Don't lost hope.. keep doing the jobs and fights OR you can put them on wishlist and open your Mystery Bags.. or simply trade with your mafias..
I am glad that Zynga is doing updates on this Game News section... Keep up the good works, guys!
Zynga has updated the Community News... check it out!
You can see this on your Game News section too..
Too bad that Zynga Poker and Cafe World promotion will be ended very soon. But they promise to make another in-game promotion..
And please check the Coming Soon info!
We will have new Crew Collection, the Free Property Upgrade will be available this weekend and hey we will have Vegas on District 7 & 8!
That's nice!
I am still hoping that they have fixed some issues.. I know that it takes lots of work to fix all... at least that we know they are listening to us now.. Great job, Zynga!
PS : Thanks for the heads up, Hayden, Kareem and Michael!
If you check on the Game News section, you will see that we have the update Release Notes..
Glad to read that and know the updates on this game! (Hope they do this continuously).
They have also changed the button to buy Feature Items on your Home page..
Before
After
That button is more thematic compared to buy RP coin button... Hey, don't forget to update the background on the Challenge Mission too, please..
Since they have brought back the San Juan event, you can also able to send the Boss Fight consumables! Yes, it's been added back to Free Gift page..
It's useful for those who have not completed San Juan event yet!
And if you still got many bugs on your game, you can always send the screenshots of your problem to Zynga Support team.. who knows that you will be rewarded with free Reward Points or Stamina refill as the compensation!
-Ra- gave me this advise so we can claim our compensation from Zynga team! They have to give it to us tho for being loyal with our Godfather on this game..
PS : Many thanks to all of you who has doing great job of helping me with sending the screenshots.. I can not do this all by myself..
Thanks a lot to Hayden, Cohen, -Ra-, VaibhaV, Bilal, Kareem, Red!
Very much appreciate your kind help, mafias.. Have a good day/night there!
We have just discussed about the Game News including the Release Notes.. and suddenly now we have it on our game..
I am glad that finally they have some updates on the notes.. Not sure why the date states 30 August though.. also I don't think they have fixed all the bugs..
First, I still can not see clearly how many Burners I have on my Robbing page.. Can you change the color of number of the Burners I have, please?
And some friends still complaining about the missing collections on the Collection & Vault page.. For example : They can not find the Stolen Diamond Collections, Crew Collections, etc..
I am still unable to convert my Thai envelopes.. I know that we have it converted when we accept the envelopes right away via Free Gift.. but how to convert the ones that sent through normal gifting? Rack of Chips got the button to exchange it to Vegas chips, can you guys on Developer team make the same button in Bangkok?
Do you want to add few more bugs? Feel free to add them on the COMMENT section below this post..
If you check on your HELP section at the game header, you will see that we don't have the "Coming Soon!" page anymore... They have changed it to "Game News" page..
It has 2 tabs, ie Community News and Release Notes..
Too bad, that they don't update the news that often... And the notes only contain this one :
Come back later for updated release notes!
Guess they have to update it regularly, otherwise these pages will be useless..
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We do not own Mafia Wars in any way. All images, names, and patterns used on this page were strictly created by Zynga.
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