Until an asteroid hits

14 February 2011 By Robert Cyran Follow @rob_cyran

Techland loves its ecosystems. When users, software and peripheral firms gel, they make standards like the iPhone valuable. The latest one is growing out of social media. JPMorgan’s tech fund, Zynga’s valuation and Pandora’s IPO show how the bubbles can replicate and expand.

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Pandora, the personalized Internet radio service, has filed to sell $100 million of stock in an initial public offering. The company has not announced how many shares it intends to sell or disclosed an indicative price. Pandora's operations turned a small profit in the first nine months of 2010, but the company had a net loss of $7 million. Revenue increased nearly threefold in the first nine months of 2010 compared to the previous year.

Separately, Zynga is in talks with private investors to raise $250 million. The offering would give the social gaming company a valuation of $7 billion to $9 billion.

JPMorgan plans to start a fund, up to $750 million in size, to invest in social media companies. The fund will be run by the firm's asset management arm and plans to invest in latestate private companies. Both the Zynga and JPMorgan stories were reported in the Wall Street Journal.

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