San Jose Business Journal

by Cromwell Schubarth

 
Zynga is reportedly close to raising half a billion dollars in a funding that values the social gaming company at about $10 billion.

The Wall Street Journal cited unnamed people it said are familiar with the matter who said that the San Francisco company is talking with new investors T. Rowe Price group Inc., Fidelity Investments and Morgan Stanley. It said existing investor Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, is also likely to participate.

The new report comes only days after another from the Wall Street Journal that said Zynga was close to raising $250 million at a valuation of between $7 billion and $9 billion. The paper said on Friday that the sudden jump came because of new investor interest.

The jump in investment comes despite Zynga’s statements that it has no immediate need for the funds because it is already profitable and has a large amount of funds already remaining from the approximately $360 million it raised previously which doesn’t include an undisclosed amount it raised from Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG).