Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) ended November with news of more executive departures.
The latest defectors include vice president Roy Sehgal and Steve Schreck, a general manager. They join a growing list of exiting managers since September as the company has been dealing with a declining share price.
Sehgal joined Zynga in 2009 and created its Café World. He is planning to take time away from work, reported Bloomberg, while Schreck has left to work at another game startup. He will be reunited with Mike Verdu, a Zynga alum who has started a mobile-games company.
Verdu, Zynga’s former chief creative officer, left the company in August.
Due to non-compete terms in Verdu’s exit, Zynga had to give Schreck approval to join his former colleague’s new company.
Bloomberg reported that Schreck oversaw Zynga’s successful, “Hidden Chronicles,” and managed a team of almost 100 employees as noted on his Linkedin Corporation (NYSE:LNKD) profile.
Since this fall, Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) has watched more than six senior executives leave the company as it has faced an inability to increase growth. Zynga is approaching its one-year anniversary as a public company (Dec. 16) and its stock has fallen around 75 percent during this time.
There have been staff reorganization and cost cutting by Zynga’s chief executive officer Mark Pincus during these challenging times.
In addition to last week’s departures, Zynga also recently said goodbye to David Wehner, the company’s former chief financial officer; he has a new position at Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). Former Treasurer Mike Gupta also landed on his feet and took a similar position with Twitter Inc.
In other recent news by Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA), it announced last Thursday that it had eased its two-year terms with Facebook. This will enable its rivals to find greater success with Facebook.
Upon hearing the news for after-hours trading, Zynga’s stock plummeted 12 percent and was trading around $2.30, reported MarketWatch.
Analysts responded to Zynga’s changes in terms with Facebook. Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities said the ensuing selloff was “an odd reaction,” and said it could have come from Facebook disclosing that it may create its own games, but this option is unlikely to happen.
Pachter has an “Outperform” rating on Zynga’s shares and commented that the company’s changes with Facebook has it on par with other game makers who have titles with the social network. He did note that Zynga’s competitors including Kixeye, Kabam, and King.com do not have revenue sharing with Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) from sales made on their individual sites, while Zynga has been been required to do as it builds its own platform.
The analyst said via MarketWatch, “I read this as Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) showing mercy, looking at Zynga and saying they were a good partner and are not doing well right now.”
Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) is currently trading at $2.25, down 8.54 percent.
