An executive reshuffle at Zynga has resulted in COO John Schappert losing his responsibility for games as the company claimed it was looking to "unify" its operations.

It's believed Schappert, who joined Zynga from EA little over a year ago, has been relieved of the role owing to increasing shareholder pressure.

Indeed, the company's stock price has suffered badly in recent weeks, due to what the company has branded as "challenging" times for its games on Facebook.

All about unity

Zynga, however, has refused publicly place blame for its recent woes at Schappert's door.

Instead the company has claimed the executive reorganisation – which will see CMO David Ko and executive VP Steve Chiang taking on his former responsibilities – is part of a wider strategy to refocus its business.

"We can confirm that in order to unify our company around a multiplatform approach, we reorganised our teams in July to integrate web and mobile groups," Zynga said in a statement.

"Our players expect their favorite games on every platform and we want to unlock everyone in the company to continue moving quickly against the multiplatform opportunity."

The news comes as Zynga's share price is hovering around the $3 mark, with the company facing legal challenges owing to alleged insider trading following its IPO at the end of 2011.

You can find out what Pocket Gamer editor in chief Kristan Reed makes of Zynga's long term fortunes here.

[source: Wall Street Journal]