CEO Update

by Zynga on October 23, 2012

Our Founder and CEO Mark Pincus today sent a note to employees outlining structural changes Zynga is implementing today and providing some detail on cost-reductions that are taking place company-wide.  Please find his note, posted in its entirety below.

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Team,

Earlier today we initiated a number of changes to streamline our operations, focus our resources on our most strategic opportunities, and invest in our future. We waited to share this news with all of you until we had first spoken with the groups impacted.

As part of these changes, we’ve had to make some tough decisions around products, teams and people.  I want to fill you in on what’s happened and address any concerns you may have.

Here are the most important details.

We are sunsetting 13 older games and we’re also significantly reducing our investment in The Ville.

We are closing the Zynga Boston studio and proposing closures of the Zynga Japan and UK studios.  Additionally, we are reducing staffing levels in our Austin studio.  All of these represent terrific entrepreneurial teams, which make this decision so difficult.

In addition to these studios, we are also making a small number of partner team reductions.

In all, we will unfortunately be parting ways with approximately 5% of our full time workforce.  We don’t take these decisions lightly as we recognize the impact to our colleagues and friends who have been on this journey with us.  We appreciate their amazing contributions and will miss them.

This is the most painful part of an overall cost reduction plan that also includes significant cuts in spending on data hosting, advertising and outside services, primarily contractors.

These reductions, along with our ongoing efforts to implement more stringent budget and resource allocation around new games and partner projects, will improve our profitability and allow us to reinvest in great games and our Zynga network on web and mobile.

Zynga made social gaming and play a worldwide phenomenon, and we remain the industry leader.  Our success has come from our dedication to a simple and powerful proposition – that play is not just something people do to pass time, it’s a core need for every person and culture.

We will all be discussing these difficult changes more with our teams and as a company.  Tomorrow, Dave and I will be hosting a post-earnings webcast (details to follow) and next week we will be discussing our broader vision and strategy during our quarterly all-hands meeting.  I’m confident this puts us on the right path to deliver on the promise of social gaming and make Zynga into an internet treasure.

If you have any immediate questions, I hope you will talk directly with your manager, Colleen, or me.

I look forward to talking with you tomorrow.

Mark

Forward-Looking Statements

This blog post contains forward-looking statements relating to, among other things, our cost reduction plans and reduction in force; our proposed non-headcount cost reductions and our ability to rationalize our product pipeline and consolidate certain facilities; our launch of successful new games; the growth of the social games market, including mobile and advertising growth; building and expanding the Zynga Platform and the Zynga with Friends Network; and our future operational plans, prospects and opportunities to expand our business. Forward-looking statements often include words such as “outlook,” “projected, ” “intends,” “will,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “expect,” and statements in the future tense are generally forward-looking statements. The achievement or success of the matters covered by such forward-looking statements involves risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Our actual results could differ materially from those predicted or implied, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of our future performance. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, our relationship with Facebook or changes in the Facebook platform or our agreements with Facebook, our ability to launch new games in a timely manner and monetize these games effectively, our ability to control and reduce expenses, our ability to anticipate and address technical challenges that may arise, competition, the changing interests of players, intellectual property disputes or other litigation, asset impairment charges, our ability to retain key employees, acquisitions by us and changes in corporate strategy or management.

More information about factors that could affect our operating results is included under the captions “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended June 30, 2012, in our registration statement on Form S-1, as amended, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 23, 2012 and in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011, copies of which may be obtained by visiting our Investor Relations web site at http://investor.zynga.com or the SEC’s web site at www.sec.gov. Undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements in this release, which are based on information available to us on the date hereof. There is no guarantee that the circumstances described in our forward-looking statements will occur.  We assume no obligation to update such statements.