Things have been nothing but rough financially for Zynga since going public in late 2011.

The company's value has dropped by over 80 percent in that time, all while, quarter after quarter, the firm has reported huge losses.

In fact, Zynga has a stock value somewhere around 9 percent lower than its cash and assets value – that's a dangerous position to be in.

To put it bluntly, it puts Zynga at risk of a hostile acquisition.

Taking stock

When the assets of a firm are worth more than its stock, it's not hard to imagine a holding company swooping in to buy the company before selling off its assets for profit.

This is the very real situation that now faces Zynga – a company previously more au fait with acquiring its rivals rathe than being acquired itself.

Luckily CEO Mark Pincus owns over half of all shares and maintains a controlling interest. Indeed, the pure numbers don't even tell the whole story – believe it or not, there's still a lot to value in Zynga as it exists right now.

But while the company appears to be pinning its hopes on casino games and a gradual shift away from its reliance on Facebook, the reality is a major change needs to happen and it needs to happen soon.

Next steps

Those in the know are already talking up a probably buyout.

Business Insider, for instance, has suggested that Amazon should buy Zynga. On the surface, it makes a lot of sense too, serving as a way for Amazon to kickstart its own social game studio.

All Things D, meanwhile, has raised the possibility of Zynga going private once again - using that $1 billion plus in cash to buy back the 45 percent of shares that Mark Pincus doesn't own.

Finally, SiliconBeat – somewhat more dramatically – has suggested that it's time for Mark Pincus to step down, questioning his vision and ability to 'snap the downward spiral'.

Though different in execution, the one thing all three takes on Zynga's next steps have in common is that they deliver huge, difficult changes for a company perhaps reluctant to admit it has fallen from grace in such a short space of time.

A look at Zynga's situation as it stands, however, suggests now may be exactly the right time for something huge to happen.