More Merging
Zynga launches Merge Magic! Gram Games’ follow up to key hit Merge Dragons!
Can sequel match success?
Company Profile
Zynga
Website
www.zynga.com
About
Zynga is a global leader in interactive entertainment with a mission to connect the world through games and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
With massive global reach in more than 175 countries and regions, Zynga has a diverse portfolio of popular game franchises that have been downloaded more than four billion times on mobile including CSR Racing™, Empires & Puzzles™, FarmVille™, Golf Rival™, Hair Challenge™, Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells™, High Heels!™, Merge Dragons!™, Merge Magic!™, Toon Blast™, Toy Blast™, Words With Friends™ and Zynga Poker™. With Chartboost, a leading mobile advertising and monetization platform, Zynga is an industry-leading next-generation platform with the ability to optimize programmatic advertising and yields at scale.
Founded in 2007, Zynga is headquartered in California with locations in North America, Europe and Asia.
Related People
Peter Rossetti
Director of Product
Gerard Griffin
Chief Financial Officer
Jeff Ryan
Chief People Officer
Keisha Krainer
Talent Operations Manager
Vikrant Agarwal
Growth Product Manager
Mark Pincus
CEO
Tatum Clanton
Game design director, Words With Friends 2
Yair Melamed
Senior Vice President, Games
Matt Wolf
VP, Blockchain Gaming
Joe Canose
Director of game design
Javi Digiorgio
Associate Creative Director
Heather Houston
Senior director of product
Phuong Phillips
Chief Legal Officer
Lauren Brown
Associate Art Director
Henry LaBounta
Chief Visual Officer
Jonathan Lopera
Head of Communications, EMEA and APAC
Buğra Koç
General Manager, Turkey
Frank Gibeau
CEO
Yaron Leyvand
Executive VP of Mobile
Don Mattrick
CEO
Vijay Pendakur
Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer
Michelle Del Rosario
Principal Software Engineer
Dmitriy Makiyevskiy
Director Ad Partnerships & Operations
Jonathan Knight
VP, Games
Phil Suh
Senior Director, Ad Monetization & Product
Poornima Seetharaman
Director of Design
Nicole Hartvig David
VP of marketing
Christopher Magoun
Lead game designer
Katie Ites
Lead art outsource manager
Paula Neves
Senior Product Manager
Vimal Sathish
Director of Design
Alex Garden
President of Studios
Vaibhav Sahgal
GM, Words With Friends
+30 more
Accolades
Articles featuring Zynga
Words With Hackers
Zynga cyber-attack sees some Words With Friends and Draw Something accounts hacked
No financial information believed to have been accessed
Zynga Zooming
M&A, hyper-casual and chat app gaming: Zynga COO talks future strategy
Zynga has had a busy few years
Speaker Spotlight
PGC Helsinki: Sonja Angesleva will be talking about how Zynga handles product management
"Product planning, player validation, and analytics"
Jobs In Games
Zynga senior director of product Heather Houston on 'treating your career as a product'
Making sense of an incredibly dynamic industry
Top Dog
How Zynga used M&A and forever franchises to become the world's number one mobile games company
"Personally, this is actually a quest that I’ve been going after since my days at EA Mobile"
Top Dog
Dimoso’s Jonathan Lopera joins Zynga to head up London communications team
The team will be responsible for publicising the company’s current and future games, employment opportunities and studio leadership outside of the US
Actor Playing Games
Zynga brings in Alec Baldwin to celebrate Words With Friends 10th anniversary.
The game launched in 2009
Financials
Zynga’s strong portfolio gives firm best-ever revenue and bookings for Q2
Empires & Puzzles and Merge Dragons contributed $70 million
Deja Moo
Zynga taps classic major IP for newly soft-launched FarmVille 3 - Animals
Farming simulator has made its way to Android in the Philippines and Thailand
Moving Location
Zynga India moves to new studio in Bangalore
Developer currently hiring for multiple roles
Live And Kicking
Two years on: Small Giant Games on the evolution of Finland's latest great export Empires & Puzzles
CEO Timo Soininen and developer Sofia Vanhanen. discuss growing the highly successful title
Forever Franchise
Empires & Puzzles racks up 34 million downloads
New update led by 20-year old Sofia Vanhanen adds base updates and Hunter's Lodge
Growing Warchest
Zynga looks to raise $600 million through proposed private placement
News comes shortly after publisher took in $600m from the sale of its San Francisco HQ
Snap Royale
Zynga launches Snapchat exclusive game Tiny Royale
Battle royale title is the publisher's first release on the Snap Games platform
Done Deal
Zynga sells off San Francisco headquarters for $600 million
Company will lease space and remain headquartered in the city
Game Of Thrones
Can the Game of Thrones games survive without the hit TV show?
Game of Thrones' watch has ended, but how did the final season impact the performance of games based off the licence?
5g
Frank Gibeau: 5G potential for mobile is "profound"
The Zynga CEO is bullish on the opportunities for games and distribution
Merged
Weighing up Zynga's $250m Gram acquisition one year on
Zynga's Bernard Kim and Gram Games' Kaan Karamanci discuss how the deal came about, what's changed, and what's stayed the same
Good Dog
Zynga posts record mobile bookings of $341m in Q1 2019 thanks to Empires & Puzzles and Merge Dragons
However losses increased significantly due to the outperformance of these titles, resulting in bigger earnouts for Small Giant Games and Gram Games
For The North
Zynga soft-launches Game of Thrones Slots Casino on iOS
What do we say to the God of death?
We Hungry
Limited time Fast and Furious event cruising to CSR Racing 2
Iconic cars from the series debut this month
Jackpot
Glu Mobile steps into the social casino game with Real Celebrity Slots
Title has been in soft launch since December 4th, 2018
All Systems Go
More games, more M&A, more growth: Why Zynga CEO Frank Gibeau is bullish for 2019
Opportunities, not costs
Comeback Kings
“Zynga’s turnaround is now complete” as publisher posts record mobile earnings
Mobile revenue hits $816m in 2018
More Is More
Despite spending over $1 billion Zynga’s M&A activity isn’t over yet
CEO Frank Gibeau is unsated
Bold Buy
Zynga buys Empires & Puzzles dev Small Giant Games in deal worth over $700 million
Finnish indie snapped up
Speak Up
Tencent, Zynga and Natural Motion set to speak at India Games Developer Conference 2018
Activision, Ubisoft and Avalanche Studios also to feature
All In
Who could be top dog in the fight to acquire Zynga?
We speculate on the potential suitors if any deal were to take place
Vroom
NaturalMotion’s CSR Racing 2 speeds past 73 million installs
The drag racing title has also hit the top spot for grossing in over 120 countries
Va Va Voom
NaturalMotion VP on the importance of live ops as it rolls out CSR Racing 2 Legends update
"The reason people are loyal to the game, to the brand and to NaturalMotion is that we continue to support that player base throughout the year"
Get Bigger Faster
Frank Gibeau on how IP licensing will help Zynga to the next level
Jetfuel for the mobile generation
Forever Franchises
Zynga bags Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and Star Wars mobile game licences
Wonka’s World of Candy match-three title set for release this week
Acquisitions With Friends?
Report: Zynga attracts takeover interest
Developer has received preliminary approaches but no formal talks have taken place, sources claim
Charity
Words With Friends 2 launches tile styles alongside breast cancer charity event
Zynga will donate up to $100,000 to Susan G Komen as part of breast cancer awareness month
High Reward, Higher Risk
The dangerous allure of F2P mobile Star Wars games
Playing Russian Roulette with a poisoned chalice?
Star Wars
Zynga stock soars 11 per cent after securing a deal to create licensed Star Wars titles
Farmville creator partners with Disney for a mobile title, with potential for a second in future.
Best Of 2018
The Top 50 Mobile Game Developers of 2018
Revealed: the movers, shakers and moneymakers!
End Of The Beginning
CEO Frank Gibeau on moving on from fixing Zynga to growing it
The long haul
The Magic Number
Frank Gibeau on why Zynga’s $250 million acquisition of Gram Games adds up
Riding Merge Dragons! to success
Blimey Guv
Zynga celebrates Royal Wedding with Words With Friends 2 Royal Social Dictionary
Blimey I'm gobsmacked
Four In A Row
CSR Racing 2 and Words With Friends 2’s strong performance extends Zynga’s profit streak
Plus Willy Wonka’s Sweet Adventure in testing
One Share, One Vote
Mark Pincus’ decision to relinquish Zynga majority voting rights reflects “my confidence in the company”
Founding CEO is stepping back
Oh My
Games publishers reprimanded over penis extender ad
Zynga, Ketchapp and Wish warned over inappropriate ads by UK's Advertising Standards Authority
Championing Diversity
Zynga partners with IGDA to kick off Women in Games Ambassador and Scholars initiatives at GDC
Zynga will provide mentoring from staff and access to the conference
Match-india
Zynga targets burgeoning Indian mobile games market with Rangoli Rekha: Color Match release
Match-three title heads out of soft launch
To Where The Puck’s Going
New games, new tech and more M&A: Frank Gibeau on making the right bets for Zynga’s future
Building on success
Zynga Financials Q4 Fy17
Zynga posts first profitable year since 2010 following successful launch of Words With Friends 2
CSR2 and Zynga Poker also continuing to grow
Bulls & Bears
Which mobile game stocks performed best in 2017?
On the up
Focus On The Details
"F**k scale": Mark Pincus explains why a focus on product was integral to Zynga's endurance
The Zynga co-founder on creativity, failing fast and why the small details in games matter