Zynga Inc. () is an American video game developer and publisher known for its social video game services. It was founded in April 2007, and it is owned by Take-Two Interactive since 2022, with headquarters in San Mateo, California. The company primarily focuses on mobile and social networking platforms. Zynga states its mission as "connecting the world through games".
Zynga launched FarmVille on Facebook in June 2009, reaching ten million daily active users (DAU) within six weeks. As of August 2017, Zynga had thirty million monthly active users (MAU). In 2017, its most successful games were Zynga Poker and Words with Friends 2, with about 57 million games being played at any given moment; and CSR Racing 2, the most popular racing game on mobile devices. Zynga began trading on NASDAQ on December 16, 2011,Zynga IPO Goes SplatVille. What Went Wrong? . Forbes under the ticker ZNGA.
Take-Two Interactive announced in January 2022 its intent to buy Zynga for . The deal was completed in May 2022.
According to Take-Two Interactive, about 10% of the world's population plays Zynga's games every month.
History Zynga was founded in April 2007 by Mark Pincus, with founding team members Eric Schiermeyer, Justin Waldron, Michael Luxton, Steve Schoettler, and Andrew Trader, under the name Presidio Media. The company name changed to Zynga in July 2007. Zynga was named after Pincus' American bulldog Zinga and uses an image of a bulldog as its logo. Zynga's first game, Texas Hold 'Em Poker, now known as Zynga Poker, was released on Facebook in July 2007. It was the first game Facebook introduced on its social networking platform.
Zynga became the Facebook app developer with the most monthly active users in April 2009, with 40 million people playing its games that month. Soon after, the company opened its first external game studio in Baltimore, Zynga East, led by Brian Reynolds.
In June 2009, Zynga acquired MyMiniLife which built and launched FarmVille on Facebook. By August, Farmville was the first game on Facebook to reach 10 million daily active users. On November 23, 2009, FarmVille.com went live as Zynga's first stand-alone game. In February 2010, Farmville had over 80 million players, and on May 18, 2010, Facebook and Zynga entered into a five-year relationship to expand the use of Facebook Credits in Zynga's games.
In December 2010, Zynga's game CityVille surpassed FarmVille as its most popular game"CityVille" Is Now Bigger than "FarmVille" . Mashable.com (December 24, 2010). Retrieved on July 9, 2011. with over 61 million monthly active users and a base of over 16 million daily active users.CityVille Dethrones FarmVille As Biggest Game on Facebook: What's Next For Zynga? . SocialTimes.com (December 24, 2010). Retrieved on July 9, 2011.
Zynga filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise up to $1 billion in an initial public offering on July 1, 2011. At the time, the company had 2,000 employees. On November 28, 2011, the Finnish game developer Rovio Entertainment rejected an acquisition attempt from Zynga worth $2.25 billion. Zynga began trading on NASDAQ on December 16, 2011.
Zynga acquired four game development companies, Game Doctors, developer of Zombie Smash, Page44 Studios, HipLogic and Astro Ape Studios. On June 26, 2012, during the Zynga Unleashed conference, Zynga announced the "Zynga With Friends" network, aiming to connect players of Zynga game titles across multiple platforms. Zynga also announced the Zynga API, intended to help developers build social games. The company announced that three new partners were developing games for Zynga.com including 50 Cubes, Majesco and Portalarium. The company unveiled the Zynga Partners for Mobile program to help increase Zynga's presence on mobile devices.
In October 2012, Zynga announced a partnership with bwin.party, an international real-money gaming operator, to launch real-money gaming in the UK, including the release of online poker, a suite of 180 casino games, and the first online FarmVille-branded real money slots game during 2013.
On June 3, 2013, Zynga announced layoffs of 520 employees—roughly 18% of its workforce—and closed offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas. By July 2013, Zynga had reportedly lost nearly half of its user base from the previous year. Consequently, investors decreased Zynga's valuation by $400 million. On July 25, 2013, Zynga said it would not be pursuing real money game production in the US. Following this announcement, shares dropped 13%.
In July 2013, Zynga hired Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment President Don Mattrick as its new CEO. Pincus remained as Zynga's chairman and chief product officer."In Major Hire, Zynga Confirms Xbox Head Don Mattrick as New CEO, Taking Over From Mark Pincus". All Things D. July 1, 2013.
In January 2014, the company announced the layoff of 314 workers, about 15% of its total workforce. In April 2014, founder & former CEO Pincus stepped down from his role as chief product officer. He remained as chairman of the board.
First quarter results for 2014 showed that daily active user numbers fell from 53 million to 28 million year-over-year. In April 2014, the company announced its new hire of Alex Garden, co-founder of Relic Entertainment and former Microsoft Game Studios executive.
In July 2014, Zynga signed a lease for office space in Maitland, Florida. Less than one year later, this Orlando-area office was closed.
Don Mattrick left Zynga in April 2015, replaced by predecessor Mark Pincus. Frank Gibeau took over as CEO on March 7, 2016, with Pincus once again stepping aside. Gibeau's last position was as head of mobile for Electronic Arts. He joined Zynga's board of directors in August 2015.
In the fourth quarter of 2017, revenue was $233.3 million, a 22% increase from the same quarter in 2016, the best quarterly performance in five years. As of January 2018, Zynga had 1,681 employees, approximately 80 million monthly active users, and a market capitalization of $3.39 billion. According to the company, Zynga has had over one billion people play its games since its inception in 2007.
On January 10, 2022, Take-Two Interactive announced its intention to acquire the company in a cash-and-stock deal with a value of $12.7 billion, with Take-Two acquiring all outstanding shares of Zynga at $9.86 apiece Both shareholders of the companies approved the merger on May 19, 2022, and the closing of the transaction took effect on May 23, 2022.
In June 2023, during the FTC v. Microsoft trial cross-examination, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer disclosed that Microsoft considered purchasing Zynga before Take-Two Interactive acquired the studio in 2022.
Funding In its first round of funding in January 2008, Zynga received US$10 million. In July of the same year, Zynga received US$29 million in venture finance from several firms. During its first four years of operation Zynga raised a total of $854 million in three rounds of fund raising. The last round, in February 2011, raised $490 million.
Public offering On July 1, 2011, the company filed its Form S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).Don Reisinger, CNET. "Zynga files for IPO ." July 1, 2011. Retrieved July 1, 2011. Zynga was priced at $10 per share and began trading on NASDAQ under ZNGA on December 16, 2011. The stock closed down 5% on its first day, then climbed 26% to $13.39 per share after Facebook's IPO filing on February 1, 2012 (Facebook had reported that 12% of its revenue comes from Zynga). In March 2012 ZNGA was trading at $14.50. For several years the stock performed poorly, but in 2017 the price hit a three-year high. By the end of 2017 Zynga's shares were trading at $4.00, a 56% gain for the year.
Acquisitions +DateGamesCompanyNew namePriceCountryFootnotesJuly 2008YovillecbUSAFeb 2010Serious BusinessUSAFeb 2010Los Angeles, CA USAFeb 2010Bangalore, IndiaMay 2010XPD MediaBeijing, ChinaAug 2010Unoh GamesZynga JapanTokyo, JapanJune 2010Challenge GamesZynga AustinAustin, Texas USAJune 2010FrontierVilleZynga EastTimonium, MD USAAug 2010Conduit LabsZynga BostonCambridge, MA USASept 2010Aves Engine (Game engine technology)Dextrose AGZynga GermanyFrankfurt, GermanyOct 2010Bonfire StudiosZynga DallasDallas, Texas USADec 2010Words with Friends; Chess with FriendsNewtoy, Inc.Zynga with FriendsMcKinney, Texas USAJan 2011CSI: Crime City Parking Wars
Drop7Area/CodeZynga New YorkNew York, USAMarch 2011MoPets; Madden 2005 and 2006;
NASCAR 07;
Pirates of the Caribbean;
FlowerzFloodgate EntertainmentBoston, USAApril 2011MarketZeroAustin, Texas USAJun 2011Social browserFlockMarch 2012Draw SomethingOMGPop$180 millionJune 2012Tomb Raider; Tony HawkBuzz MonkeyZynga EugeneOregon, USASept 2012Lucky TrainA Bit Lucky$20 million+Nov 2012BattlestoneNovember SoftwareJune 2013Wizard of Oz; Hit it Rich SlotsSpooky Cool LabsJan 2014CSR Racing; Clumsy NinjaNaturalMotion$527 millionOxford, United KingdomJune 2015Product IncubatorSuperLabs$1.00June 2016Dragon AcademyTeam ChaosAustin, Texas USAMarch 2017Solitaire; FreeCell;
Pyramid;
Spider SolitaireHarpan, LLC$42.5 millionNov 2017Casual card gamesPeak Games$100 millionTurkeyMay 2018"Merge" gamesGram Games$250 millionUnited Kingdom TurkeyDec 2018Empires & PuzzlesSmall Giant Games$560 millionFinlandJune 2020Toy BlastPeak$1.8 billionTurkeyOctober 2020Go Knots 3D;
Tangle Master 3DRollic$180 millionTurkeyMarch 2021Echtra Games$21.1 millionSan Francisco, CA USAMay 2021Chartboost$250 millionSan Francisco, CA USAAugust 2021Golf RivalStarLark$525 millionChinaFebruary 2022NanoTribeGermanySeptember 2022StoremavenIsraelNovember 2022PopcoreGermany
Business model Zynga uses a "free-to-play" business model. Revenue is acquired via direct credit card payments and partner businesses. It sells in-game virtual goods as people play its games, supports in-game advertising, and it has banner advertising around its game portals.
In addition, Zynga games are linked to offers from several partners. Players can choose to accept credit card offers, take surveys or buy services from Zynga's partners in order to obtain game credits. Players may also purchase game credits directly from Zynga. In the game, players can purchase the points for a fee. In March 2010 Zynga started selling pre-paid cards in the US for virtual currency.
In March 2012, Zynga launched a separate social gaming platform, which included publishing other developers to the Zynga.com platform. Early third-party developers included Row Sham Bow, Inc and Mobscience. In June 2012, Zynga started running Facebook advertisements and sponsored stories on its website. The revenue was split between Facebook and Zynga.
Hasbro partnership In February 2012, it was announced that Zynga and Hasbro had partnered to create products based on Zynga properties and brands. In October 2012, Zynga and Hasbro launched eight 'face-to-face' games resulting from their collaboration: FarmVille Hungry Hungry Herd and Animal Games; CityVille Monopoly and Skies; Words With Friends Classic, Luxe, To Go; and Draw Something. The Hasbro games included ties to Zynga Web and mobile games, such as in-game currency that players can use in the digital versions of CityVille and FarmVille.
Customer acquisition The company initially relied on free distribution of its product to users, and later began spending money on marketing. In 2017, developing a paid user base took priority over a new user acquisition. According to one analyst, Zynga can either fund the creation of new games to attract new users, or it can buy smaller game studios with new games which will bring in new customers.
Platinum Purchase Program