Just when you thought one-time mobile gaming champ Zynga had jettisoned all that it could, the company is now selling its giant headquarters at 650 Townsend Street, according to the Registery
This is actually a potential coup for the company, since they bought in 2012, which was the height of their popularity but only the beginning for rocketing commercial real estate prices. The 25-year-old building sold to Zynga for $228 million, about $317 per square foot if we work off of the assessor’s 717,000-square-foot estimate.
The average value of commercial real estate in the city right now depends on who you ask, but that hardly matters, since every offered number is well over two and a half times what Zynga paid for the place, approaching $800 per square foot. The land alone is valued at over $133 million.
For perspective, Zynga's total revenue for Q4 2015 was $186 million, and total revenue for the year was $764 million, meaning there's a reasonable chance they'll make as much money selling the building as they do doing anything else all year. Not to put too fine of a point on it, but the company laid off 18 percent of its staff last year, presumably leaving it with a less pronounced need for office space.
The purchase of the building was basically the last high point in Zynga’s troubled history, which resembles that of a dot.com in the latter era. 2012 was the year Zynga’s share price peaked at $14.50, and also the year it plunged to just a little over $2, where it sits to this day.
Despite the hard luck, Zynga insists it’s sticking around, announcing a slate of 10 new games in its most recent earnings report, mostly gambling titles.
- Zynga to Put Headquarters Building in San Francisco on the Market [Registry SF]
- Zynga Quarter Earnings Report, Q4 2015
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