Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA), the online gaming company that developed ‘Farmville’ and ‘Words With Friends’ has announced the closure of its offices located in New York, Baltimore, Austin and McKinney, Texas as part of its initiative to steer itself towards profitability.
David Ko, chief operating officer of Zynga said, “In an effort to leverage resources as we focus on creating franchises and driving profitability, Zynga has made changes to four of our US offices.”
According to him, the online gaming company’s workers in its offices in Austin and McKinney will be relocated to its existing offices in North Austin and Dallas. Its team in New York City will be transferred to the company’s mobile studio.
Ko said the company’s action will reduce 1 percent of the company’s workforce. He said, “While these decisions are always difficult, these steps will affect approximately 1% of our workforce and [will] enable us to focus resources on the most significant growth opportunities.”
“We’re already working to execute on leveraging franchises to build the largest game network and be profitable on an adjusted EBITDA basis,” added Ko.
The four offices that will be shut down by Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) were associated with failed projects, and recently lost their team leaders, according to a report from the Business Insider.
During its previous earnings call, the online social gaming company’s CEO, Mark Pincus and Ko already indicated their plan to cut and close unsuccessful games rapidly.
Brian Reynolds, former team leader of Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA)’s Baltimore office resigned last month, while Paul and David Brettner, developers of ‘Words With Friends’ left last October. They led Zynga’s office in McKinney.
Demetri Detsaridis, who run the Zynga’s office in New York also left the company most recently. He supervised the development of the Friends Game, one of the failed projects of the company. Dan Porter, the former CEO of OMGPOP is the current manager of Zynga’s studio in New York.
Zynga’s office in Austin was formerly supervised by Andrew Busey, who just resigned from the company to join Austin Ventures as an entrepreneur-in residence. He sold the Challenge Games to Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) in 2010. The company will probably hire a new manager to replace Busey.
The stock price of Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) surged as much as 10 percent following the announcement of the closure of offices, job cuts, and the passage of an interstate online poker legislation in Nevada.
Nevada Governor, Brian Sandoval, signed a new law that authorizes the state to enter agreement with other states that will allow Nevada-based companies to host interactive gambling with their residents.
As of this writing, the stock value of the company is up by nearly 8 percent to $3.44 per share.
