Whoa! What Just Happened to My Stock? MannKind Corporation (MNKD), Zynga Inc (ZNGA)

As I’ve noted in my critiques of similarly situated Glu Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ:GLUU), the free-to-play/pay-to-play-more model is not a particularly winning one. The “freemium” model relies upon a very small number of players to actually pay up for the additional goodies, and the Fool’s tech analyst Andrew Tonner estimates it’s just 1%-2% of a company’s user base. That could be why Zynga is moving into online gambling.

With a partnership with Bwin.party expected to launch later this year, investors are tempted to let the chips fall where they may, but going up against major sites like PokerStars is going to mean putting on your game face. The U.S. is broadly off limits to online gambling at the moment, except in Nevada where it’s legal to gamble only for players who are physically in the state. Major casino operators like Caesars Entertainment Corp (NASDAQ:CZR) have been approved to operate their own gambling sites, and there are more than a dozen other operators also licensed to operate as well. This is little more than an all-in gamble on Zynga’s part to resuscitate what is otherwise a dwindling business, and I’d bet against it succeeding.

Say no more
Speaking of all-in bets, MannKind’s stock jumped on no real company-specific news on Friday other than we can expect it to report earnings today after the markets close. The biotech has it all riding on inhaled-insulin therapy Afrezza that’s in phase 3 trials to treat type 1 and 2 diabetes, and it’s a race to see whether it makes it to the finish line before it runs out of cash.

If nothing else, company founder Alfred Mann continues to voice his opinion with his wallet, buying shares in the open market and most recently through a purchase agreement for $103 million worth of stock. Analysts are looking for MannKind to post losses of $0.18 a share this quarter compared to $0.30 a year ago, but let me know in the comments box below whether you think the market will continue to be kind to MannKind.

The article Whoa! What Just Happened to My Stock? originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Rich Duprey.

Fool contributor Rich Duprey has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.

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