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Reddit Zynga Former Employee

Zynga whistleblower takes to Reddit following mass sacking to reveal its “terrible business strategy”

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By Jennifer Faull, Deputy Editor

June 5, 2013 | 3 min read

A Zynga employee who was sacked with 520 others took to Reddit last night to answer questions on his former employer.

The Reddit user's initial message explained that he was in a creative position with the games developer for almost two years, saying: “What do you want to know about Zynga? I'll try to be as honest and open as possible”

Others were quick to flood the ex-employee going by the name ‘former_zygnite’ with questions, on everything from the flawed business strategy to where Zynga is headed.

The former employee said the mass dismissal came “totally out of the blue” and that he “wasn't expecting layoffs at this point.”

This prompted another ex-Zynga staff member to add that after the previous five per cent cut Zynga gave assurances “it was a onetime thing,” suggesting the remaining employees are now on tenterhooks.

Former_zygnit said he would give Zynga “another 2 to 3 years”, revealing that they “throw away money like you wouldn't believe”, presumably on staff perks as the whistleblower claimed he ate “two out of three meals for free at work every day.”

Meanwhile the second sacked employee to offer up information gave them a “10:1” chance as “the CEO is hellbent on believing that their current course is the correct course.”

On Zynga’s business strategy he said “it is terrible.”

“Their major issues are the inability to adjust to the changing market. There's also lots of other issues internally. A lot of micro-management from the top down that stifles the creativity and hinders the production of many games.”

He added there was a “serious lack of foresight over all. Too many major decisions are quick reactions to sudden changes in the market. If some games jumps to the top of the Top Grossing charts then everyone need to drop everything and change to follow it.”

The employee confirmed that Zynga’s future plans rely heavily on real money gambling, saying: “Yeah, they want to get into real money gambling” but that it is once again a “Johnny-come-lately to this market.”

He added that a major focus now is mobile but “they're just not making a great transition into it. They're great at Facebook games, but it's just not the same thing.”

Details were also disclosed on what it was like for employees when they tried to sell their shares following the company’s IPO in December 2011.

“By the time employees could sell for the first time it had dropped to $8 a share.

“After that window closed, the stock price had dropped to $4 or $5 by the next time employees could sell. I guess the investors were pissed that the top brass made out like bandits and everyone else got screwed.”

Reddit Zynga Former Employee

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