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Zynga founder Mark Pincus back in as CEO

This time in the latest round of Zynga musical chairs, Mark Pincus, co-founder and former CEO (as well as former product chief), has found himself back at the top.
Written by Rachel King, Contributor

Despite the constant missteps and downward spiral since its IPO in 2011, Zynga still manages to stay relevant -- or at least in the headlines.

But the beleaguered mobile gaming company seemingly only manages to do that through the drama in its executive suite.

This time in the latest round of Zynga musical chairs, Mark Pincus, co-founder and former CEO (as well as former product chief), has found himself back at the top.

Pincus will be replacing Don Mattrick, previously the president of the Interactive Entertainment Business (Xbox) at Microsoft, who joined Zynga as chief executive in July 2013.

Mattrick is leaving Zynga entirely, according to a memo penned by Pincus to all Zynga employees on Wednesday.

While arguing "it's time to renew our focus on our vision to make play and social games a mass market activity," Pincus did pay some credit to the headway made during Mattrick's two-year tenure.

Pincus wrote:

This hard work for our mobile players has resulted in bookings growing from 27% mobile when Don joined to 60% by the end of last year. Further, to deliver unique and differentiated value to our mobile players, Don and the team acquired NaturalMotion. NaturalMotion has surprised and delighted the world with Clumsy Ninja and CSR Racing resulting in more than 160 million installs.

While Zynga's C-level shifts were almost routine a few years ago, the CEO shuffle surprised more than a few on Wednesday.

Nearly a year ago to the date, Pincus said he would be stepping down from all operational roles -- including chief product officer -- to focus on work as Zynga's chairman.

That was right after Zynga's chief financial officer and chief accounting officer Mark Vranesh already announced his departure.

Now retaking the reins, Pincus promised employees to "strengthen our focus on our core areas like Invest and Express," hinting at more news amid the company's next quarterly earnings report in May.


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