RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
NPR's business news starts with a Zynga fail.
The biggest game developer for Facebook is out with its first earnings report, and it's not a winning number. Zynga posted a loss of more than $430 million for its fourth quarter. This is the first time the company has come out with earnings since it went public in December. Zynga's IPO raised a billion dollars. Clearly, it has a long way to go to prove it's worth all the excitement.
The company blames the higher cost of developing games for part of the earnings decline. Zynga makes real money by selling virtual items. Players buy credits and trade them in for virtual goods - say a tractor in "Farmville," or a Tommy gun in "Mafia Wars." Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.