Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) CEO Don Mattrick, who completes almost 16 months in the company, replaced Mark Pincus at a time when the game maker was in the midst of restructuring. At that time Zynga was focusing more on mobile games, and shares were down around 70% since the company went public in December 2011.
Zynga facing same issues
On July 1, 2013, when Mattrick joined the company, shares had dropped to $3.07. There were high expectations for Mattrick, who left Microsoft where he headed Xbox gaming platform. After being with Zynga for over a year, the company is till facing many of the same problems, says a report from Market Watch.
The social game maker will post its third-quarter results on Thursday, and analysts are expecting the company to report a loss of a penny per share, excluding one-time items, on $171.6 million in revenue. Even though analysts are expecting Zynga to cut down its loss from 2 cents per share a year ago, sales are estimated to decrease 15% from last year’s $202.6 million.
Additionally, Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) is still not able to find many players for its titles. The stock price has come down to around $2.45, bouncing back a bit after a 52-week low of $2.20 per share on October 15th.
Time running out for Mattrick
With things turning topsy-turvy for Zynga, analyst Tony Wible of Janney Montgomery Scott said that after almost a year and a half of Mattrick, Zynga might be thinking “Better the devil you know” with regards to its CEO. Wible said that optimism among analysts is now diminishing, but believes that with Mattrick’s experience and his bond with the company, he is still the best bet for Zynga.
“I don’t know if anyone can truly fix a company that is just in a bad industry,” Wible added.
The game maker has made a lot of efforts to revive old titles and push the new ones, but nothing seems to be working in favor of the company. Zynga launched NFL showdown lining with the football season and also launched the newer version of Zynga Poker and Words With Friends in recent weeks.
Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter believes that the pressure on Mattrick is growing to get some new title that can prove Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA)’s value in the mobile gaming segment. According to Pachter, time is running out for Mattrick, which is evident from the investor frustration reflected in the share price.
Mattrick needs to demonstrate that the people in the organization “are actually working on something,” said Pachter.
