Since bottoming out in March 2020 at $5.65, ZNGA is now up to $9.77 as of this writing – and pushing higher.  In recent days, the company and Peak, the creator of Toon Blast and Toy Blast, just closed the transaction under which ZNGA acquired all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Peak for a total purchase price of approximately $1.85 billion comprised approximately of equal contributions of cash and ZNGA common stock, according to the latest Zynga press release.

“We are delighted to welcome Sidar and Peak’s extraordinarily talented team to Zynga,” said Frank Gibeau, Chief Executive Officer of Zynga. “With the addition of Toon Blast and Toy Blast, we are expanding our live services portfolio to eight forever franchises, meaningfully increasing our global audience base, and adding to our exciting new game pipeline. As a combined team, we are well positioned to grow faster together.”

Plus, demand for mobile gaming has been incredibly explosive.

More than 2.7 billion global gamers are expected to spend nearly $160 billion on games just this year, according to market researcher Newzoo. Better, mobile gaming could generate up to $77.2 billion this year – 13.9% growth year over year.

In addition, in recent months, Zynga posted a first quarter loss of $103.9 million, or 11 cents a share, as compared with a year-earlier loss of $128.8 million, or 14 cents.  Revenue rocketed 52% higher to $403.8 million from $265.4 million year over year.  Analysts were only looking for a loss of a penny a share on sales of $389 million.

“In Q2, we expect revenue of $400 million, up $94 million or 31% year-over-year, with bookings of $460 million, up $84 million or 22% year-over-year. Live services will drive our topline performance, led by our forever franchises, as well as the year-over-year additions of Merge Magic! and Game of Thrones Slots Casino,” says CEO Frank Gibeau.

As of this writing, Ian Cooper does not have a position in shares of ZNGA.