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Candy Crushed

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Who’ buying this crap? Nice open for Candy Crush.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — “Candy Crush” got crushed.

That was the popular way to describe the social game maker’s public trading debut, as King Digital’s stock tumbled from the opening trade.

King KING +1.46%  shed 15.6% to close at $19, the worst trading debut this year, according to data from Renaissance Capital. The company priced its initial public offering at $22.50.

The drop was so steep that analyst Scott Sweet, senior managing partner at IPO Boutique, said the IPO was hit by “extremely fast money,” as investors appeared to make a quick exit.

“It almost stood no chance,” he told MarketWatch. “It wasn’t surprising. It’s getting pounded.” He said there appeared to be “a hope for a pop that never materialized” as “traders immediately pulled the trigger.”

King saw strong demand in the days leading up to the IPO, even as doubts lingered over the company’s growth potential. Some analysts said the company was too dependent on one hit and called King aone-trick pony.

Sweet compared the King IPO to that of another social gaming company, Zynga,ZNGA +3.13%  whose shares also fell when it went public in 2011. Zynga shares are still down more than 50% from its IPO price.

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E.J. Smith

Editor-in-Chief
E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@youngresearch.com.

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