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You've got to wonder what employee happy hours are like in the legendarily intense environs of Zynga. (We're gonna guess testy.) A couple days ago, the company announced the departure of New York GM Dan Porter, and former employees are already dishing to Fast Company. A lot of former Zynga staffers, it seems, are ready to trash talk the OMGPOP acquisition, which cost Zynga a $95.5 million write-down.

One former employee complained to Fast Company, "They bought it at the peak [of Draw Something], and people got tired of the gameplay quickly and the usership dropped. We got the timing wrong."

A former "long-time" product manager said Zynga timed the acquisition wrong and overpaid (double ouch):

 "It was a knee-jerk reaction to something the executive team saw as a threat to the company. If you look at OMGPOP's portfolio of failed games, the fact that they hit on this winning game was an accident. People got bored of playing Draw Something after about two weeks. Zynga closed the acquisition and announced it when their numbers peaked. That's almost comical."

It wasn't all criticism, though. See, one former GM delivered this backhanded compliment:

"I knew the OMGPOP guys--they were really talented, and really good at making games," says a former Zynga general manager. "What they were bad at was making money, and they were struggling for a long time."

In fact, it sounds like some of these guys aren't mad at OMGPOP, so much as they're disgusted with Zynga's bungling: "The acqui-hire doesn't make sense, and I think Zynga's acquisitions are retarded, actually," one former product manager told Fast Company.

Not to put any pressure on the upcoming game show or the celebrity-focused Draw Something 2, but this sob story could really use a happy ending.

Mr. Porter and Ghostface Killah (Photo: Twitter)

Dan Porter, the former CEO of New York-based gaming company OMGPOP which was purchased by Zynga in March of last year, has left the company, according to a release obtained by Betabeat.

Zynga confirmed to Betabeat that the decision was mutual and unrelated to the expiration of any “golden handcuff” clause in his contract keeping him at the company after the acquisition. Mr. Porter had been working on developing the sequel to Draw Something for the past year and felt it was in good enough shape to make the transition. Zynga launched Draw Something 2 in Sweden last week. The company picked Sweden to release the sequel--a celebrity-focused social network of sorts that emphasizes showcasing drawings over gaming--because Sweden was the first country where the first version hit no. 1 in the App Store.

"Developing and launching games is a team effort, and we’re proud of the great work the Zynga New York team has done with Draw Something 2," Zynga COO David Ko said. "We thank Dan Porter for his efforts in making the Draw Something franchise a success and wish him well in his future endeavors."

Until today, Mr. Porter served as the VP of general management at Zynga's New York office. He'll be replaced by VP of Mobile Sean Uberoi Kelly. This past December, CEO Mark Pincus was named the fourth worst CEO in part because of "a big exodus of top executive talent," as well as the $95.5 million write-down on its acquisition of OMGPOP.

Mr. Porter’s independent streak has bristled against Zynga’s corporate policies in the past. His public criticisms, such as calling Zynga out for copying competitors, have on occasion warranted a retraction. Zynga HQ’s willingness to blame poor performances on the OMGPOP write-down and dwindling engagement with the game likely didn’t help.

But Zynga New York has been on a hot streak of late, as we reported last week. What’s the Phrase--a new game from the New York office that borrows from “Wheel of Fortune” the same way Words with Friends borrows from Scrabble--hit no. 1 in Apple’s App Store without much promotion. It's currently no. 6 in top free apps overall and no. 4 in top free games.

On March 21st, Mr. Porter tweeted “One year,” indicating the one-year anniversary of his time at Zynga.

https://twitter.com/tfadp/status/314841925268172800

This is a breaking story. We have reached out to Mr. Porter and will update the post when we hear back. 

UPDATE: Yesterday evening after our post went up, Zynga's What's the Phrase moved from no. 3 to no. 1  for top free games in Apple's App Store and is currently holding down the top spot.

Zynga New York hasn't always had the chummiest relationship with Zynga's corporate office back in San Francisco. The East Coast outpost was formed a year ago after Mark Pincus acquired OMGPOP and its mobile juggernaut Draw Something--installing OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter as general manager.

Things started to sour last fall when Zynga blamed a $95.5 million write down on its $183 million OMGPOP acquisition for a bad quarter. But after a round of office closures, Zynga New York remained open, which is in line with gaming giant catching the all-mobile-all-the-time bug from Mark Zuckerberg. COO David Ko (Mr. Pincus' no. 2 man) also continues to speak highly of Draw Something and the upcoming, Ryan Seacrest-approved Draw Something 2.

Soon he may have even more to crow about to wary Zynga shareholders. 

When we logged into Apple's App Store today, Zynga New York's newest game What's the Phrase was front-and-center, holding down the no. 3 spot for free games. The app, which was launched February 28th, had been hovering just below the top 10 games last week, a Zynga representative told Betabeat.

Like other Zynga titles, What's the Phrase takes its cue from old school American pastimes like Scrabble and Pictionary--updating them with a social twist. In this case, "Wheel of Fortune," since players take turns guessing vowels and consonants that form a hidden phrase.

The company said a team of ten mobile developers from Zynga New York were responsible for the app and that it managed to climb up the app charts organically, without much promotion. This is good news for Zynga, which has had to acquire hits (like Words with Friends) in the past.

Considering Pat Sajak is still on the air, though, What's the Phrase is gonna have to find a different monetization path than Draw Something, which has an upcoming game show (produced by Mr. Seacrest) and is following the Angry Bird model of extending its brand beyond your smartphone screen.

But Zynga HQ doesn't sound ready to cede dominance to New York just yet. A representative pointed out that Running with Friends, a new game currently in beta in certain markets, was developed in San Francisco. With that name, we expected a quantified-self app that forces you to humble-brag marathon times (with friends), but apparently the game is Mr. Pincus' version of Temple Run. Maybe Zynga should change its name to Copies with Friends?

(Photo: Twitter/RyanSeacrest)

Celebrity revelations rarely arrive without some behind-the-scenes orchestration, which is what we imagine happened this afternoon when Ryan Seacrest "gave away Zynga's secret," by outing the launch of Draw Something 2 on Twitter.

After all, Mr. Seacrest's production company RS Productions also happens to have acquired the rights to the Draw Something game show.

Dan Porter, the former CEO of OMGPOP and current general manager for Zynga New York, confirmed existence of Draw Something 2, also by Twitter.

It's unclear whether the original Draw Something will remain in existence. But TechCrunch reports that the sequel will function more like a social network, "where players get to keep and show off their drawings instead of having them disappear into the game."

We hear that a "gallery" of art was the most requested feature among Draw Something users and that Mr. Seacrest will be just one of many celebrity partners for the new version. That would extend Zynga's emphasis on social engagement beyond the one-to-one of Draw Something's original Pictionary-esque game.

This marketing and merchandising-friendly approach also falls in line with a vision of the Draw Something brand articulated by Mr. Porter back when there was a little more strain on his relationship with Zynga. In the past, he's referred to Angry Birds as a model for Draw Something. Rovio's game sells everything from plush toys to lunch boxes and, whaddya know, a new animated series.

Last fall, Zynga attributed steep losses in part to a $95.5 million write-down on its $183 million acquisition of OMGPOP. But as Business Insider notes, Mr. Porter's New York studio "is the only one the company is keeping open after a recent round of office closures." A little celebrity sheen goes a long way, especially if Draw Something can figure out how to get some of the 10 million to 20 million people who reportedly play the game every month to join its new social network--especially since the Facebook fire hose ain't what it used to be.

and now @nickiminaj and @keithurban get the #DrawSomething2 treatment... caption? twitter.com/RyanSeacrest/s…

— Ryan Seacrest (@RyanSeacrest) March 18, 2013

This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of GarysGuide and proud owner of a whole bunch of black suits, white shirts and, at last count, over 40 red ties. You can reach him at gary [at] garysguide.com.

I'm a big fan of organizations and groups that encourage more women to get involved in the traditionally male-dominated worlds of tech and entrepreneurship, by creating community and providing guidance and support. And this week, we have a ton of these women-focused events.

There is the Ladies Who Code hacknight, where they encourage you to bring your brilliant self, your laptop,  and your beloved text-editor of choice! There is Celebrating Extraordinary Female Founders at Levo League (a site for Gen Y female professionals), as well as the launch party for PlumAlley (a new site supporting female-founded companies). There is the Go Connect - Ignite Your Ambition event organized by NY Tech Women and The White House Project. There is JumpStart Your Dreams, organized by She Creates Change (a community supporting women as they make their professional dreams a reality). And finally there's Women 2.0 Founder Friday, with guest hosts Alexis Tryon (cofounder, Artsicle) and Anagha Nadkarni (cofounder, AppGuppy).

Speaking of women in tech, there are two upcoming events that should be on your radar. My friend Dani, the founder of DaniWeb (a million-member-strong IT discussion community), is throwing a big party next month on October 2nd. So go check it out! :) Second is Focus100, a conference and boot camp on October 5th, organized by Kathryn Finney (founder, DigitalUndivided) and supported by BlogHer and Andreessen Horowitz. The event aims to get 100 companies founded or cofounded by black women to raise funding or get acquired by 2015.

Also: The deadline for voting on panels submitted for SXSW 2013 has been extended until midnight tonight, and so you still have a chance to help out your fellow Silicon Alley friends. Here's the list of panels we've compiled. Show some love with your votes!

And now let's see what's going down in the Alley this week...

Curators Conference
With Gia Coppola (fashion filmmaker), Susie Bubble (founder, Style Bubble), Josh Rubin (cofounder, Cool Hunting), Rodrigo Calvo (managing director, Mr. & Mrs. Smith), Chris Corrado (fashion curator, Capsule), Warren Fu (music video director), Philippe von Borries (cofounder, Refinery29), Soraya Darabi (founder, Foodspotting) and more.
Wednesday (Sept. 05), 8 a.m. @ Walter Reade Theatre, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza, 165 West 65th Street

NY Games Conference
With Dan Porter (OMGPOP/Zynga), Brian Cho (Andreessen Horowitz), Perry Tam (Storm 8), Adam Boyes (Sony) and more.
Wednesday (Sept. 05), 8 a.m. @ Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place

Practical Approaches to Transhumanism
Featuring a guest from Grindhouse Wetware, whose focus is "augmenting humanity using safe, affordable, open source technology." Yes, that does sound intriguing!
Wednesday (Sept. 05), 6:30 p.m. @ Pearl Street Studios, 519 8th Avenue

Celebrating Extraordinary Female Founders
Celebrating extraordinary female founders on Fashion's Night Out and kicking off the launch of Plum Alley.
Thursday (Sept. 06), 6 p.m. @ Levo Labs, 833 Broadway, 5 Fl.

NYTechWomen and The White House Project Present: Go Connect - Ignite Your Ambition
With Tara Sophia Mohr (founder, Wise Living), Amanda A. Ebokosia (founder, The Gem Project), Layla Revis (VP digital strategy, Ogilvy), Maggie Patton (founder, Hands On America) and Jessica Lawrence (managing director, New York Tech Meetup).
Thursday (Sept. 06), 6:30 p.m. @ AOL Patch NYC, 675 6th Avenue, 3rd Floor

Discussion with LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner & New York Times Columnist Adam Bryant
A discussion between Adam Bryant (Columnist, New York Times) and Jeff Weiner (CEO, LinkedIn) before a live, interactive audience.
Thursday (Sept. 06), 7 p.m. @ Directors Guild Of America Incorporated, 110 West 57th Street, #6

#techdrinkup - Rooftop Party @ Empire Hotel
A party for NYC's brightest and savviest tech people to gather and mingle over drinks and food at exclusive NYC venues.
Thursday (Sept. 06), 7 p.m. @ Empire Hotel Rooftop, 44 W. 63 Street

CashCatsBiz Art Exhibit + Partie!
Tumblr and Forced Meme Productions will present "Cashcats.biz: How the One Purrrcent Really Live." It's a one-night popup exhibition featuring dozens of previously unseen "member photos" from Cashcats.biz and new mixed media works inspired by C$C$ aristocats.
Thursday (Sept. 06), 8 p.m. @ Dumbo Loft, 155 Water Street, Brooklyn

Tech Does Fashion Week (#TDFW): A Kickoff Party
An evening of fun, music, and dance. Drinks & hors d'oeuvres provided.
Friday (Sept. 07), 8 p.m. @ AlleyNYC, 500 7th Avenue , 17th Floor

Comedy Hack Day
Twilio and Cultivated Wit are organizing Comedy Hack Day, an awesome 36-hour hackathon where developers and comedians come together to build the most hilarious apps imaginable.
Saturday (Sept. 08), 9 a.m. @ Pivotal Labs NYC, 841 Broadway, 8th Floor

Cool Cravings | Hot Startups
Insanely delicious desserts from innovative food startups around the city. Get an hour of unlimited access to the newest creations from brands like Brewla Bars, Krumville Bake Shop, SkyIce, Purely Elizabeth, NibMor, The Soft Serve Fruit Co. and Stogo.
Saturday (Sept. 08), 12 p.m. @ OpenHouse, 379 Broome Street

More events on the horizon...
Digital Money Unconference-- From NYPAY and Consult Hyperion on Sept. 11 @ Google
September 2012 NY Tech Meetup on Sept. 11 @ NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts
Dating Tactics for the Business World on Sept. 11 @ General Assembly West
Investor Feedback Forum on Sept. 13 @ Columbia University - Schapiro Center
From Wall Street to Silicon Alley on Sept. 19 @ General Assembly
Design for Manufacturing Summit on Sept. 20 @ Dumbo Spot
Startup Weekend NYC on Sept. 21 @ AlleyNYC
Daniweb Presents: Advertising, Marketing and Media Mayhem! on Oct. 02 @ Slate Lounge
FOCUS100 Symposium and Pitch Bootcamp on Oct. 05 @ Ogilvy & Mather

Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends! ;)

CEO Dan Porter with Ghostface Killah. (Twitter)

Before the sudden success of Draw Something, things weren’t looking so great for OMGPOP. Several developers got the ax. But an anonymous source tells Business Insider the story didn’t end there. As soon as the prospects looked good for a deal, CEO Dan Porter hired them all back:

 

He was literally negotiating the deal and jamming the re-hires back into payroll to make sure they were covered with hours remaining in the close.  Their options kept vesting and they benefitted from the sale.
Porter didn't have to do it. It was just the mensch thing to do.
There was one guy who used to work for OMGPOP who was facing a deadline on whether or not to exercises his options. He couldn't decide, and Porter didn't want him to lose out, so he hired him as a contractor to extend his vesting as well. He made money too.

We’re slightly skeptical, if only because this is just about the only thing that could make OMGPOP’s acquisition more of a Cinderella story. But it does offer a sunny flip side to Mr. Porter’s rather vindictive response to the Shay Pierce flap.

Draw Something is also the no. 1 free app. Basically, the Pictionary-esque app seems unstoppable. We hear talk of the game in the line at the coffee shop. Celebrities are playing it, talk show hosts are gabbing about it, and everyone you know is either complaining of Draw Something addiction or Draw Something fatigue. "I have too many games going!" Well, close some games. What do you want us to do?

The viral success of Draw Something prompted the acquisition of OMGPOP for a cool $180 million in cash by Zynga. The app is also a moneymaker on its own, though recently OMGPOP dropped the price to $.99, with additional in-app purchases available.

Metrics from AppData show the app is losing daily users but gaining monthly users--4.3 million of them in the last seven days, to be precise, negating rumors that the Zynga sale had coincided with a drop in use. While daily active users does seem to have plateaued, the app is still being downloaded in droves and making its way into pop culture, as when Ryan Seacrest drew Lady Gaga for her birthday. Also, the Chinese are getting into it.

Mr. Porter with Ghostface Killah (via Twitter)

The saga of the lone OMGPOP employee to say no to Zynga isn't over just yet thanks to a couple of acerbic late night tweets from OMGPOP chief executive Dan Porter. Last week, Shay Pierce, a former OMGPOP game developer penned a rather explosive column for Gamasutra about turning down Zynga's post-acquisition employment offer over a difference of "values." (The gist: he had them, Zynga didn't.)

Guess Mr. Porter, now VP of general management at Zynga New York, was not a fan of Mr. Pierce calling his new employer "evil." Late Friday night, Mr. Porter tweeted: "The one OMGPOP employee who turned down joining Zynga was the weakest one on the whole team. Selfish people make bad games. Good riddance!” In case you weren't sure who he was talking about, he later added, "What's so interesting about success is the number of failures who try to ride on your back. Shay Pierce is just one of many . . ."

Geeze, the afterlife of a $180 million cash offer for your one-hit gaming company isn't as sweet as we thought. Mr. Porter has since deleted the tweets, issued a public apology (of sorts) on Twitter, and sent mea culpa to VentureBeat, "So was my language a little harsh in the tweet. Yes it was. But my point is that it wasn’t about Shay. It was about the 41 other people who made it happen. Those are the people I would throw myself in front of the train for and those are the people I want to celebrate."

Mr. Porter's twitburst followed a leak to Business Insider claiming that Mr. Pierce was about to be fired. Betabeat reached out to Mr. Pierce about the leak. He emailed back that it was "water under the bridge," adding:

"I was offered a job at Zynga and can only assume from that action that they wanted to hire me. Prior to my resignation, I did not have any animosity with the Zynga representatives or with Dan Porter nor did I receive any indication from my manager or company that I was performing poorly and 'about to be let go.' There were only four people in the Austin OMGPOP office including myself, and I find it hard to believe that I would not have been given some indication that I was not meeting expectations if the alleged imminent firing is true.

I believe that I was doing good work for the company and cannot speculate beyond that."

Mr. Pierce's email came before Mr. Porter called him out on Twitter. But other game developers haven't responded as well. Yesterday, Shaun Inman tweeted out the following burn, which he called his "final" Draw Something:

Later, Mr. Inman called it a joke, but added, "I am done with Draw Something and Paper is pretty engaging :)"

According to the latest numbers on AppData, the OMGPOP acquisition increased Zynga's daily average usage by 25 percent from the 14.6 million Draw Something users alone. Only Zynga has the non-deduplicated number of players who might already have been playing Zynga games like Words with Friends. And as TechCrunch notes, "Draw Something may have a shorter life cycle — Zynga hasn’t had a chance to see how long this type of sketching-sharing game can stick around." Also unknown: how many potential players--or employees--Mr. Porter lost with those tweets.

Mr. Forman (via twitter/charlesforman)

The New York Times got a ticket to OMGPOP's after-acquisition party at the Bowery Hotel last week where they ran into the startup's founder, Charles Forman, who was in such a daze over the $180 million deal with Zynga that he walked into traffic.

Mr. Forman, who left the company in 2011, but retained his stake, told the Times he made "way more" than $22 million from the sale, adding, "It’s the kind of money where I’ll be wearing whatever I want when somebody invites me to a wedding."

We never really thought to measure "fuck you" money in terms of prescribed wedding attire, but godspeed to any groom that wants Mr. Forman as his best man.

As the Times notes, although Mr. Forman and CTO E. J. Mablekos created OMGPOP's first drawing game, a web-based attempt called Draw My Thing that put a timer on guessing the word in the picture, Draw Something was created after Mr. Forman left the company.

In fact, two former employees told the paper that OMGPOP, which raised $17 million since 2006, was on its way to running out of money by May and likely would have shuttered if not for CEO Dan Porter and the team of five behind Draw Something, which took the game mobile and eliminated time limits and the idea of assigning a winner and loser.

While Mr. Forman, who is currently working on the stealth startup Picturelife with Nate Westheimer, may now feel entitled to forgo a suit at your wedding, it looks like he's playing nice with his new benefactors. Shortly after the conference call announcing the sale, Mr. Forman tweeted his thanks to Mr. Porter and investor Bijan Sabet, whose firm Spark Capital participated in OMGPOP's Series A and Series B rounds, but took a more snide tone towards Zynga and CEO Mark Pincus:

That tweet has since been deleted from Mr. Forman's account, leaving just two updates on his Twitter profile: one about Draw Something being the #1 free app on iTunes and his first message to the world from May, 2007, "im pooping."

CEO Dan Porter with Ghostface Killah. (Twitter)

As expected and reported in many places, today Zynga announced the purchase of New York's own social game maker OMGPOP.

OMGPOP was founded six years ago, went through a session at Y Combinator, and wound its way through a series of challenges and leadership changes before coming out with the superhit game Draw Something six weeks ago. Draw Something is like Pictionary, except it's played on a mobile phone and is apparently as addictive as crack. With 35 million downloads, it is by far the largest game OMGPOP has ever made.

"We're excited to announce Zynga has acquired New York-based OMGPOP," Dave Ko, Zynga's chief mobile officer, said on a media call, before praising the "smash hit Draw Something." "If you haven't played it already, I highly suggest you check it out. It's super fun."

OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter, who raised $17 million in financing and took the company from seven people in 2008 to 40 people today, was announced as the VP and general manager of Zynga New York. "Maybe we can turn New York City into a hotbed of gaming activity as well," Mr. Porter said.

Peter Kafka of AllThingsD, who was on the story early, reported the acquisition price was "$180 million, plus another $30 million or so in employee-retention payments... Don’t know about cash/stock split." Zynga isn't commenting on the price and declined to confirm that this was Zynga's largest acquisition to date.

CTO E.J. Mablekos was the original creator of the first Draw My Thing, the precursor to Draw Something.

Zynga does not plan to change the name to "Draw Something With Friend."

It sure looks like Zynga is buying the company for one hit game, one reporter noted. If so, and if the price is as high as reported, is that really a sustainable strategy for the gaming giant?

"It's a combination of the game, the team and having a shared vision of social," Mr. Ko said.

OMGPOP was founded as iminlikewithyou by Charles Forman and Dan Albritton; the latter left the company in 2007. Mr. Forman left OMGPOP last year to cofound stealth startup Picturelife with Nate Westheimer.

@bijan thanks for believing in me. @tfadp you're the man. @markpinc it was nice talking to you on the phone that one time in 2008.

— Charles Forman (@charlesforman) March 21, 2012

"The OMGPOP team has created a game that’s fun, expressive and engenders real social interaction," said Mark Pincus, founder and CEO of Zynga, said in a robotically-worded statement.

Some stats on Draw Something:

· In the last week, more than 1 billion drawings have been created.

· Draw Something had three drawings per second the day the game launched.

· Yesterday, Draw Something has over 3,000 drawings per second at its peak.

· Draw Something is the #1 word game in 84 countries according to the Apple App Store – shout out to Sweden and Norway for being the first two countries to recognize Draw Something’s greatness. Nordic Love!

· The most popular words in Draw Something are: Starfish, pregnant, hangman, six pack, boom box

· The least popular word in Draw Something is latrine

· The best guessed words in Draw Something are: Rainbow, catfish, sun, fish, house, god tornado

· The least guessed words in Draw Something are: Oar, Metroid, Warhol, pounce, polaroid, meathead, Autobots