Zynga IPO to come this week

(CBS) - Add social gaming company Zynga to the list (along with Facebook) of Internet-related companies that are planning to file for an initial public offering (IPO) before year's end.

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The San Francisco, Calif.-based firm that brought us addictive games FarmVille and Mafia Wars, intends to go public this week, says the Wall Street Journal, which cited unnamed sources.

The IPO can come as early as sometime today. Zynga plans to raise up to $2 billion, which would value the company at between $15 billion to $20 billion, reports CNBC. Morgan Stanley is set to lead the underwriting, with Goldman Sachs coming in second.

"According to research from GreenCrest Capital LLC, Zynga is expected to see roughly $1.46 billion in revenue this year - roughly 80% of which will come from the sale of virtual goods in its games and credits, and about 20% from online advertising," says the Wall Street Journal.

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Currently, Zynga has 250 million people playing its games monthly. Metrics provider AppData says CityVille alone has 88.2 million monthly users, while Farmville has 38.6 million. Its new game, Empires & Allies, which launched less than a month ago, already has 43.2 million monthly users.

Not too shabby for a company that builds cartoon-y worlds where real people buy fake money to play pixelated games.