stocks

As Zynga falters, so does Facebook

Players are spending 20 percent less on Zynga games, which means Facebook is receiving less money from those games as well.

"Overall, gaming on Facebook isn't doing as well as I'd like," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during the company's third-quarter earnings conference call today. He said the rest of Facebook's gaming network has been growing -- monthly payments revenue from other games has increased by 40 percent since last year -- but Zynga's numbers have fallen.

Zynga's payment revenue has gone down 20 percent since last year's third-quarter earnings, Facebook'… Read more

iPad Mini fails to boost Apple stock

Not even Apple could escape unscathed on a day when the stock market got gob-smacked by fresh worries out of Europe and disappointing earnings news at home.

See CNET's full coverage of Apple's iPad Mini event After staging an early afternoon rally that brought its shares close to breakeven, Apple's stock fell back -- with the rest of the market -- down more than 3 percent for the day to finish at $613.39. What do you want? It was a lousy day in the stock market, with the market finishing down nearly 243 points, and not … Read more

SEC finds Facebook didn't hold back info from investors -- report

The Securities and Exchange Commission didn't find any evidence that Facebook withheld pertinent information from investors prior to its initial public offering, Bloomberg reported today.

The commission began investigating the social network's initial public offering, or IPO, in May, after Facebook's stock dropped. The stock still hasn't recovered from that day, and is currently trading at around half of its $38 IPO price.

While the investigation isn't over, the commission has determined that Facebook did not act wrongly, an unnamed source told Bloomberg. The SEC is still looking at whether or not retail investors lost … Read more

Why Google got slammed for its earnings

Google shares are tanking, and it's not because the company's third-quarter results hit early.

Sure, that's a pretty big no-no, but what's really upsetting investors is the numbers themselves. Results were pretty lackluster across the board, and Motorola can't be blamed for all of it.

Here's what's spooking investors:

The stock has been on a tear First of all, keep in mind that Google's stock has been on a tear as of late, rising more than 30 percent this summer before hitting a record $774.38 earlier this month. That prompted a … Read more

Analyst reports send Netflix's stock on a seesaw ride

Analysts are having some difficulty getting a clear picture of Netflix's streaming future -- and its stock is paying the price.

Shares in the Web video-rental service fell 8 percent to $67. 75 in morning trading after Merrill Lynch/BofA downgraded the stock. Yesterday, Netflix closed up 10 percent after Morgan Stanley analyst Scott Devitt raised his rating and boosted his price target to $85.

Last Wednesday, Mark Mahaney, a Citigroup analyst also helped send the stock price up when he called Netflix a "screaming buy." The upgrades were based in part on the belief that Amazon … Read more

Apple shares slump ahead of iPad Mini reveal

Last update: 2:19 p.m. PT -- added Apple's closing price.

Apple shares are down nearly 10 percent since hitting an all-time high of $705 last month, prompting a flurry of explanations, including one conspiracy theory, for the stock retreat ahead of a brand-new product.

The recent slide, which started in the middle of September, is counterintuitive to the usual principle of buying on the rumor. Apple is widely expected to unveil its smaller, lower-cost iPad Mini next week, with invitations for the event believed to be coming over the next few days.

As of 9:54 a.… Read more

Zynga executive exodus continues: Zynga Poker GM leaves

Adding to a growing number of Zynga executives who have left the social gaming company this year, Zynga Poker General Manager Laurence "Lo" Toney has moved on from the struggling company, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Zynga Poker is the company's first social game and the largest free-to-play online poker game, according to Zynga's site. CNET has contacted a Zynga spokesperson for comment and will update when we hear back.

Toney's departure, first noticed by All Things D, comes as the company faces slowed growth and slumping stock. Its stock closed at $2.43 a … Read more

Zynga teases new CityVille 2 amid company struggle

Zynga is now testing a sequel for "CityVille," the company wrote on its blog today.

The social games creator promises are more "visually rich game" with "CityVille 2," which was released today to specific players for testing.

"It has all the features in CityVille that players love -- from neighbor visits and crews to buildables -- blended with some of the innovations we introduced in CastleVille and FarmVille 2 such a crafting and 3D graphics," according to the post.

The company has said -- and Wall Street seems to agree -- that … Read more

Analyst warns of Facebook-ad backlash, sets $16 stock price

Facebook's recent push to make money could backfire, warns an analyst who believes a user backlash may depress its shares to $16 over the next year.

BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield lowered his firm's target price for Facebook today, citing concern over Facebook's "aggressive" increase of monetization efforts, particularly mobile ads, according to his report. Facebook's stock opened at $20.40 a share this morning.

Since going public in May, Facebook has faced increasing pressure from investors to demonstrate that it can keep revenue and profits growing quickly. The social network has increased advertising efforts, … Read more