History
Zynga was founded in April 2007 by Mark Pincus,[21] with founding team members Eric Schiermeyer, Justin Waldron, Michael Luxton, Steve Schoettler, and Andrew Trader, under the name Presidio Media.[22][2] The company name changed to Zynga in July 2007.[23][24] Zynga was named after Pincus' American bulldog Zinga[25][26] and uses an image of a bulldog as its logo. Zynga's first game, Texas Hold 'Em Poker, now known as Zynga Poker, was released on Facebook in July 2007. It was the first game Facebook introduced on its social networking platform.[27]
Zynga became the Facebook app developer with the most monthly active users in April 2009, with 40 million people playing its games that month.[28] Soon after, the company opened its first external game studio in Baltimore, Zynga East, led by Brian Reynolds.[29][30][31]
In June 2009, Zynga acquired MyMiniLife which built and launched FarmVille on Facebook. By August, Farmville was the first game on Facebook to reach 10 million daily active users.[32] On November 23, 2009, FarmVille.com went live as Zynga's first stand-alone game.[33] In February 2010, Farmville had over 80 million players,[34] and on May 18, 2010, Facebook and Zynga entered into a five-year relationship to expand the use of Facebook Credits in Zynga's games.[35]
In December 2010, Zynga's game CityVille surpassed FarmVille as its most popular game[36] with over 61 million monthly active users and a base of over 16 million daily active users.[37]
Zynga filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise up to $1 billion in an initial public offering on July 1, 2011. At the time, the company had 2,000 employees.[38] On November 28, 2011, the Finnish game developer Rovio Entertainment rejected an acquisition attempt from Zynga worth $2.25 billion.[39] Zynga began trading on NASDAQ on December 16, 2011.[40]
Zynga acquired four game development companies, Game Doctors, developer of Zombie Smash, Page44 Studios, HipLogic and Astro Ape Studios.[41] On June 26, 2012, during the Zynga Unleashed conference, Zynga announced the "Zynga With Friends" network, aiming to connect players of Zynga game titles across multiple platforms.[42] Zynga also announced the Zynga API, intended to help developers build social games.[43] The company announced that three new partners were developing games for Zynga.com including 50 Cubes, Majesco Entertainment and Portalarium. The company unveiled the Zynga Partners for Mobile program to help increase Zynga's presence on mobile devices.[44]
In October 2012, Zynga announced a partnership with bwin.party, an international real-money gaming operator, to launch real-money gaming in the UK,[45] including the release of online poker, a suite of 180 casino games, and the first online FarmVille-branded real money slots game during 2013.[45][46][47]
On June 3, 2013, Zynga announced layoffs of 520 employees—roughly 18% of its workforce[48]—and closed offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas.[49][50] By July 2013, Zynga had reportedly lost nearly half of its user base from the previous year. Consequently, investors decreased Zynga's valuation by $400 million.[51] On July 25, 2013, Zynga said it would not be pursuing real money game production in the US.[52] Following this announcement, shares dropped 13%.[53]
In July 2013, Zynga hired Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment President Don Mattrick as its new CEO.[54][55] Pincus remained as Zynga's chairman and chief product officer.[56][57]
In January 2014, the company announced the layoff of 314 workers, about 15% of its total workforce.[58][59] In April 2014, founder & former CEO Pincus stepped down from his role as chief product officer. He remained as chairman of the board.[60]
First quarter results for 2014 showed that daily active user numbers fell from 53 million to 28 million year-over-year.[61] In April 2014, the company announced its new hire of Alex Garden, co-founder of Relic Entertainment and former Microsoft Game Studios executive.[62]
In July 2014, Zynga signed a lease for office space in Maitland, Florida. Less than one year later, this Orlando-area office was closed.[63][64]
Don Mattrick left Zynga in April 2015, replaced by predecessor Mark Pincus.[65] Frank Gibeau took over as CEO on March 7, 2016, with Pincus once again stepping aside. Gibeau's last position was as head of mobile for Electronic Arts. He joined Zynga's board of directors in August 2015.[66][67]
In the fourth quarter of 2017, revenue was $233.3 million, a 22% increase from the same quarter in 2016, the best quarterly performance in five years.[68] As of January 2018, Zynga had 1,681 employees,[69] approximately 80 million monthly active users,[70] and a market capitalization of $3.39 billion.[71] According to the company, Zynga has had over one billion people play its games since its inception in 2007.[72]
On January 10, 2022, Take-Two Interactive announced its intention to acquire the company in a cash-and-stock deal with a value of $12.7 billion, with Take-Two acquiring all outstanding shares of Zynga at $9.86 apiece[73] Both shareholders of the companies approved the merger on May 19, 2022, and the closing of the transaction took effect on May 23, 2022.[74][75]
In June 2023, during the FTC v. Microsoft trial cross-examination, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer disclosed that Microsoft considered purchasing Zynga before Take-Two Interactive acquired the studio in 2022.[76]
