Zynga plans management shake-up

Zynga has announced an extensive management overhaul with three senior executives including the firm’s COO set to leave the firm as part of a larger company restructuring.

Don Mattrick, who replaced Mark Pincus as CEO last month, said on a company blog yesterday that COO David Ko, chief people officer Colleen McCreary and chief technology officer Cadir Lee will leave the social gaming company.

As part of the shake-up, leaders from all areas of the social gaming company will report directly to Mattrick who said he believes the new structure will help the firm to grow after a difficult period.

“With the [restructuring] in place, I believe that we will have the best chance to grow, build a world class executive team and culture, establish cadence and really become committed to important priorities and opportunities for our long term success,” he said.

“We are taking layers out of the executive rank to get senior leaders closer to important product initiatives,” Mattrick added. “With that in mind, I have asked the leaders to sharpen their focus and properly densify talent to resource teams.”

The management shake-up follows the announcement Zynga would not be pursuing a US real-money gaming licence and would instead focus on its free-to-play games offering.

The real-money gambling switch came after disappointing financial results in which Mattrick urged the company to “get back to basics” after a 31% fall in revenue year-on-year.

Mattrick had stated at the time he would conduct a detailed top-to-bottom examination of every aspect of the company.

The latest departures come after Zynga announced in June that it would be laying off 18% of its workforce, resulting in 520 employees across a number of territories losing their jobs.

A number of other high-profile staff members left the company this year, including CIO Debra Chrapaty, chief game designer Brian Reynolds, and general manager in China Andy Tian.