Submitted by Fox First at Ten on June 12th
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Shares of social game maker Zynga Inc. took a beating again Monday after a report said that Facebook's growth appears to be slowing, especially in the U.S. Zynga gets most of its revenue from games played on Facebook.
THE SPARK: The Wall Street Journal said unique U.S. visitors to Facebook rose 5 percent in April to 158 million, citing tracking firm comScore Inc. ComScore confirmed the data.
That's the slowest growth rate since comScore started tracking the data in 2008.
While Facebook shares also fell slightly in regular trading, they were helped by the announcement that Apple Inc. is integrating Facebook into iPhones and iPads. Most Zynga games, which operate on Adobe's Flash software, are currently unable to play on Apple devices because of Apple's ban on Flash software in its portable devices.
THE BIG PICTURE: Zynga earns revenue from games such as "FarmVille" and "Mafia Wars." It shares 30 percent of its revenue with Facebook for purchases that people make while playing on the social network.
THE ANALYSIS: Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said the slowdown at Facebook should not be surprising given that more than half of Americans use the service already. He said Zynga would eventually benefit by reprogramming its games to work on the Web language HTML5, which will work on iPads and iPhones.
"The stock is getting beat up for no reason," Pachter said.
SHARE ACTION: Zynga shares fell 50 cents, or 8.3 percent, to $5.55 in regular trading Monday. The shares are down from their all-time high of $15.91 reached in March. They debuted on public markets at $10 in December.
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