By Kelly Faircloth 4/04 10:25am

BummerVille

draw-something1

As Dan Porter Departs, Former Zynga Folks Dish

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.” Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 10/24/12 7:30pm

Place Your Bets

Mr. Pincus (Photo: Wikipedia)

After Significant Layoffs, Zynga Officially Rolls the Dice on Real Money Gaming in 2013

After two big blows in succession–downgraded earnings forecasts, followed by 5 percent layoffs and the end of its studios in Boston, Japan, and the UK–Zynga’s third quarter earnings report exceeded the Street’s “rock bottom expectations.” That might explain why after hours trading is currently up 13.6 percent.

Zynga had predicted a net loss of $90 to $105 million for the third quarter, but only reported a net loss of $52.7 million. The company attributed part of that loss on a $95.5 million impairment charge on its acquisition of OMGPOP, the New York City-based makers of Draw Something. Zynga also said that a 28 percent sequential decrease in monthly unique payers (MUPs) from the second quarter (4.1 million) to the third quarter (3 million) as “largely driven by Draw Something.” Read More

By Jessica Roy and Nitasha Tiku 10/23/12 2:48pm

Shakeups

(Photo: Insider Monkey)

Zynga Reportedly Lays Off 100+ Employees During the Apple Keynote Because No One Will Even Notice, Right Guys?

Social gaming company Zynga has endured a rough couple of months. After its acquisition of the NYC-based company OMGPOP–producers of the fad-friendly game Draw Something–Zynga has experienced a downward spiral. Earlier this month, it reported an estimated net loss of $90 million to $105 million for its third quarter, sending its already-low stock price into a tailspin. Now, The Next Web reports that the company has laid off 100 staffers from its Austin headquarters, and may even be shuttering its Boston office altogether. Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 10/04/12 8:05pm

Exit This Way

draw-something1

OMG DROP! Stock Plummets After Zynga Takes a Massive Write-Down On Draw Something Acquisition

It looks like the Cinderella story that was Zynga’s $183 million acquisition of the long-suffering (and then suddenly desirable) startup OMGPOP may not have a fairy tale ending. The social gaming giant released ”preliminary financial results” this afternoon, ahead of its third-quarter earnings report and the downgraded forecast sent the stock price down 19 percent in after-hours trading.

The results say that Zynga expects a net loss between $90 million and $105 million for the third quarter. One reason for their lowered expectations? Zynga said it expects an $85 million and $95 million write-down on its purchase of New York City-based OMGPOP, the makers of Draw Something. Read More

By Jessica Roy 5/24/12 7:25am

Be Like the Virus

omgpop-elvis

Zynga Insists More Ads Will Save Draw Something

Pictionary-like game Draw Something continues to endure a steep decline in players. AppData reports that since March, the number of users logging into the app via Facebook has fallen from 14.5 million a day to 7.6 million, almost halving Draw Something’s daily active users.

With interest in the game quickly ebbing, the Wall Street Journal reports today that Zynga is attempting to justify the $183 million it spent to acquire Draw Something and its parent company OMGPOP by tacking on yet more ads to the flailing game. Because if there’s one thing game players love, it’s ads, obviously. Read More

By Jessica Roy 2:52pm

Alley vs. Valley

TC Disrupt NYC 2012

Engineers from Foursquare, OMGPOP and Facebook Make the Case for NYC as an Engineering Hotspot

After a Southern-inspired lunch of sloppy joes, potato salad and cornbread, the attendees of TechCrunch Disrupt NYC filtered into the auditorium of a spacious pier building on the West Side Highway for another set of panels. Jason Kincaid, formerly of TechCrunch, took the stage with Foursquare’s Harry Heymann, OMGPOP’s Jason Pearlman and Facebook’s Serkan Piantino to discuss whether or not the East Coast is indeed the “best coast” for engineering.

“It’s sort of a silly name,” opened Mr. Kincaid, playing politely to both sides. “I think both coasts are very nice.”

He then asked the panelists whether hiring engineers in New York is particularly hard due to the fact that many of them are drawn to the glitz and cashmoney of the finance sector. Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 4/17/12 6:48pm

Make It Rain

OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter with Ghostface Killah. (Twitter)

Wanted: Social Games. Money No Object.

MegaMillions isn’t the only game in town capable of inspiring a feeding frenzy. Not content merely to snap up OMGPOP at something like $180 million, Zynga is making it known they’ve still got IPO cash burning a hole in their corporate pockets. Merger chief Barry Cottle basically told Bloomberg that they are hungry, ready to move fast, and rich as hell: Read More

By Adrianne Jeffries 4/13/12 3:40pm

Ridiculous Listicles

Path? That's hot. (flickr.com/pimkie_fotos)

10 Startups, Ranked in Order of Hotness

The climate for Internet startups is heating up. Startups are closing rounds faster, getting popular more quickly, scoring higher valuations and getting acquired with increasing greediness. As local luminary and angel investor Chris Dixon notes, the preponderance of hockey stick growth among the top tier of startups is creating a heavy set of expectations that weighs upon the littler startups. These A-list startups are like the impossibly pretty cheerleaders or the improbably studly jocks who discourage the rest of the high school with their sheer existence. They’re the “it” startups, and they can do no wrong. In other words: they’re hot.  Read More