Facebook’s Zuckerberg Gives Zynga’s Stock Price a Boost

Mark Zuckerberg’s appearance today at TechCrunch Disrupt not only gave his own company’s stock a bump, but it also boosted shares of its close partner, Zynga.

In after-hours trading, Facebook’s stock jumped 3.4 percent to close at $20.08 a share. The social games company, which has faced its own struggles as a public entity and often trades in tandem with Facebook, was up a more modest 2.5 percent before closing at $2.86 a share.

Zuckerberg largely kept his cool today, explaining that Facebook’s stock performance was “disappointing,” and adding that the company’s mobile strategy is “misunderstood.” When it came to Zynga, he acknowledged that the social gaming landscape has gotten more competitive, with other game companies being able to gain momentum on the platform.

“Zynga’s had a rough few quarters. They’re basically a strong company,” he said, according to BusinessInsider.com, which liveblogged the event. “Other companies, like King.com and Kixeye, have gained share. We have 200 million people playing games monthly. That’s real.”

That was a real enough endorsement for investors to push shares slightly higher, even if the company continues to be down 70 percent since going public in December. The San Francisco games company continues to be dominant on Facebook today, but it is still reeling from missing its second-quarter guidance, and currently is in the spotlight after several high-level executive departures.

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