San Diego Reader

At left: Zynga's Farmville social game

San Francisco's social games maker Zynga filed for an initial public offering on Friday, expecting to raise up to $1 billion. It's almost certain to be a hot IPO; the company is now very profitable, unlike many companies going public for the first time.

La Jolla's Avalon Ventures is already a winner. It has 6.1% of the Class B shares, and, according to Forbes magazine, earlier this year sold $20 million worth of its stake back to Zynga. The largest Class B holder is another venture capital firm with 11%, so Avalon has an impressive piece of the action.

Avalon's managing directors are Kevin Kinsella, Stephen Tomlin, Richard Levandov, Jay Lichter, Brady Bohrmann, and Doug Downs.