Zynga Marketing Chief Departing Amid Share-Price Slump
Zynga Inc. (ZNGA)’s Jeff Karp has resigned as chief marketing and revenue officer, becoming the latest executive to leave as a share-price decline erodes the value of staff compensation at the largest maker of social games played on Facebook Inc. (FB)
Karp’s departure, disclosed in a regulatory filing yesterday, follows at least seven other managers who have left since early August after a second-quarter earnings report missed analyst expectations and showed slowing sales at the game maker.
Zynga’s stock has declined 72 percent since the company’s December initial public offering, eroding the value of equity used to compensate staff. The company announced it would give equity grants to full-time employees after the earnings report to prevent a departure of talent, a person with knowledge of the matter said last month.
“Jeff Karp is leaving Zynga, and the groups in his organization have been realigned under appropriate existing divisions,” said Dani Dudeck, a spokeswoman for San Francisco- based Zynga, in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), the second-largest U.S. video-game publisher, said it had seen an increase in job applications from Zynga.
“In recent weeks we’ve seen an increase in resumes from Zynga people,” said Gabrielle Toledano, executive vice president of human resources at EA, in an e-mailed statement. “We’ve interviewed several people, made some offers and hired a handful of Zynga employees.”
Management Overhaul
Karp, who will remain employed in a non-officer capacity through Sept. 22, joined Zynga a year ago from Electronic Arts.
John Schappert, a former EA executive who last year was hired as chief operating officer at Zynga, departed the company last month after a management overhaul had stripped him of oversight of key operations.
Karp and Schappert were named in a lawsuit EA filed against Zynga in August claiming copyright infringement. The complaint alleged that the executives had access to “sensitive design, development, and strategic information” about EA games before leaving to join Zynga.
Another former EA executive, Mike Verdu, who joined Zynga in 2009, resigned last month to start his own game company.
Zynga fell 1.1 percent to $2.79 at today’s New York close.
-- Editor: Reed Stevenson
To contact the reporter on this story: Douglas MacMillan in San Francisco at dmacmillan3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net
Zynga Marketing Chief Karp Departing Amid Share-Price Slump
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Zynga’s stock has declined 72 percent since the company's December 2011 initial public offering.
Zynga’s stock has declined 72 percent since the company's December 2011 initial public offering. Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Rate this Page
Bloomberg moderates all comments. Comments that are abusive or off-topic will not be posted to the site. Excessively long comments may be moderated as well. Bloomberg cannot facilitate requests to remove comments or explain individual moderation decisions.