Zynga Beats the Street

Zynga Inc raised the lower end of its 2012 earnings outlook on Wednesday as the company reported a slight uptick in revenue that beat the Street's rock-bottom expectations.

Quarterly revenue rose to $317 million, an increase of 3 percent from a year ago, suggesting a worst case scenario may not happen after Zynga slashed its 2012 outlook earlier this month.

The company revised its full-year adjusted earnings to be in the range of $152 million and $162 million, up from $147 million and $162 million.

Shares of Zynga climbed 9 percent to $2.33 in after-hours trade.

The game maker, which has been fighting to reverse a dramatic exodus of players, had cut its 2012 earnings forecast on Oct. 4 when it warned investors its top line would be affected by poor performance in core money-making Internet games like "CityVille".

Zynga recorded bookings of $256 million from July through September, the worst quarterly performance since late 2010 when the company was still enjoying a meteoric ascent toward its December, 2011 initial public offering.