The Rise and Fall of Zynga
The Rise and Fall of Zynga
Is Zynga, the shooting star of social gaming, losing its shine?
April 2007: Mark Pincus founded Zynga as Presidio Media; the name was changed to Zynga in July 2007.
Zynga was named after a Zinga, an American Bulldog once owned by Pincus.
Venture Capital – Money Pours In
In 2008, Zynga received $5 million in venture capital to fund a company of only 27 people.
In 2009, Zynga received $209 million between two venture capital firms.
In 2010, Softbank funded Zynga Japan to the tune of $150 million
First Hits
Mafia Wars (2008) and FarmVille (2009) released; Zynga takes off.
Within 2 months of FarmVille’s release, game gains “more than one million new daily active users a week on average.”
By December 2009, Farmville had 72.9 million monthly active users, more than 20 percent of Facebook’s 350 million users.
CityVille immediately did well, with over 100 million monthly active users in just 43 days.
Stock History
Zynga began trading on NASDAQ December 16, 2011, it was the biggest Internet IPO since Google’s in 2004.
Zynga stock (ZNGA) was originally priced at $10.
Shares reached a high of $14.50 in March 2012
And a low of $2.09 in in November 2012
Between 2010 and 2011 Zynga went on an acquisition spree: buys 11 companies.
2013: Zynga laid off 520 employees (18% of workforce) to save $70 – $80 million.
Zynga now has fewer employees than when it went public.
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