Zynga has announced that its founder Mark Pincus will once again step down as chief executive of the social gaming company, with board member Frank Gibeau confirmed as his replacement.
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This is the second time that Pincus has been replaced by a long time EA executive; the last time was in 2013, when Don Mattrick, who had also worked at Electronic Arts for 25 years, before coming in to oversee the Xbox 360 business at Microsoft in 2007, took over.
“Despite the success of mobile games, Mark and I believe that the full promise of Zynga and social gaming has yet to be fully realized”, said Gibeau.
But as hard as he tried, Mattrick’s efforts to turn around Zynga faltered and its stock price was under constant pressure, forcing analysts to question the company’s business model. As important, we must commit to a new level of operational excellence with focused execution, engineered hits and strong cost discipline.
Zynga, once one of Silicon Valley’s fastest-growing companies, suffered a dramatic reversal of fortunes in 2012 as gamers switched from the company’s Facebook-based desktop games to those played on mobile devices.
Gibeau added: “I’m excited to get started and expect a seamless transition given the progress we’ve made together over the past seven months”.
Gibeau stepped down from his role at EA after 23 years last May.
“I’m encouraged by our early momentum and I look forward to partnering with our teams to build on the progress we’re seeing across the company”.
Gibeau spent more than 20 years at Electronic Arts (EA), where he most recently served as executive VP of EA Mobile until May 2015.
Taking Pincus’ place will be industry veteran Frank Gibeau. Since Frank joined the Board, Mark and Frank’s strategic partnership and shared passion for social mobile gaming has positively inspired our teams and business. Its headquarters building in San Francisco is up for sale and plans to cut more jobs by the third quarter are in effect.
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Pincus, who is also Zynga’s founder, will serve as executive chairman of the board, and will also report to the company’s board of directors.
