San Francisco: Zynga Inc's chief executive, Mark Pincus, has opted to receive an annual salary of just $1 this year and forgo all cash bonuses, the company said on Thursday.
Pincus, who founded the social gaming company in 2007 and still maintains majority control, received a pay package of $1.7 million in 2011.
His 2012 pay package has not yet been made public by the company, which is best-known for "FarmVille," a popular game on Facebook.
Moreover, Pincus will not participate in the company's cash bonus program this year, the company told the Securities and Exchange Commission in a filing....
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02:35 PM, Apr 05, 2013
San Francisco: Online game publisher Zynga Inc relaunched its website, allowing users to play its games without first signing on to Facebook, a significant step toward establishing its independence from Facebook Inc. The relaunch of Zynga.com is the latest step in the slow dissolution of a special partnership that once bound two of the most influential players in the social Internet industry. Tim Catlin, general manager of Zynga.com, told Reuters...
09:56 AM, Mar 24, 2013
Social games publisher Zynga Inc confirmed on Monday that it has carried out 11 of the planned shutdowns of 13 game titles, with "Petville" being the latest game on which it pulled the plug. ...
11:06 AM, Jan 01, 2013
New York: Zynga shares tumbled nearly 13 per cent in after-hours trading Thursday after the online game company and Facebook disclosed that they changed their relationship status to become less attached to each other. Zynga said in a regulatory filing Thursday that it will no longer have to display Facebook ads or use Facebook payments on its own properties - such as Zynga.com. In addition Zynga will no longer be...
12:50 PM, Nov 30, 2012
New York: Zynga's finance chief is leaving the troubled online game company to join Facebook. San Francisco-based Zynga Inc. said that David Wehner will take a "senior finance position" at the social networking company. His exact title will be vice president of corporate finance and business planning, Facebook said. Chief accounting officer, Mark Vranesh, is replacing Wehner as chief financial officer, returning to the post he held from 2008 to...
01:46 PM, Nov 14, 2012
New Delhi: After the gaming giant Zynga, known for Facebook games Farmville and Cityville, announced its plans to sack 5 per cent of its employees, the online hacktivist group Anonymous has threatned to take down Zynga and Facebook on November 5. Anonymous is targeting Zynga for the "outrageous treatment" of their employees and their actions against many developers. The group further said, "With a billion dollars cash sitting in a...
12:32 PM, Oct 29, 2012
San Francisco: Zynga Inc will acquire A Bit Lucky, a digital gaming studio known for Facebook-based titles like "Lucky Train." Terms of the deal, announced on Monday, were not disclosed. Zynga said more than 20 A Bit Lucky employees, currently based in San Mateo, California, will join Zynga's San Francisco division. The acquisition reflects Zynga's shift toward so-called mid-core offerings - titles that sit between highly produced, packaged games and...
11:33 AM, Sep 18, 2012
San Francisco: Not long ago, online games company Zynga looked on pace to unseat much bigger, well-established rivals as it rode the popularity of "FarmVille," the clicking game of virtual cows and real money. But the iPad came along, and more people bought smartphones. People weren't playing Zynga's games on Facebook and computers as much as they used to. Zynga's revenue growth slowed down, and its stock price fell sharply,...
12:39 PM, Sep 06, 2012
San Francisco: Video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc sued Zynga Inc on Friday, accusing the social gaming company of copying key elements of EA's The Sims Social game for Zynga's own title, The Ville. EA's lawsuit is the latest in a series of copycat accusations levelled against Zynga, a company that has shrugged off similar litigation in the past as it grew into the dominant publisher of games on Facebook....
12:20 PM, Aug 04, 2012
San Francisco: Zynga Inc CEO Mark Pincus said he remains wary of investing as heavily in mobile games as he has in proven Web-based titles like FarmVille despite an industrywide push toward catering to mobile devices. Game industry observers in recent months have stressed that developers must adapt as Internet users worldwide shift toward spending time on smartphones and tablets rather than desktop computers. Concerns that Zynga continues to rely...
02:05 PM, Jul 11, 2012
San Francisco: Zynga Inc unveiled a social network for gamers dubbed Zynga with Friends on Tuesday, hoping to wean itself from a longstanding, symbiotic relationship with Facebook Inc that has shaped two of Silicon Valley's closely watched Internet companies. The game publisher, which has been under pressure to reverse a steep slide in stock price in recent months, said its new network will pair gamers with opponents and make features...
06:16 AM, Jun 27, 2012
San Francisco: Facebook Inc has begun showing ads on Zynga Inc's website, the first time the company has distributed ads beyond the borders of its own website and raising the possibility that Facebook could eventually launch an online advertising network. "People may now see ads and sponsored stories from Facebook on Zynga.com," said Facebook spokesperson Tucker Bounds. He said that Facebook does not share information about people or advertisers with...
04:42 AM, Jun 23, 2012
San Francisco: Zynga Inc is buying OMGPOP, maker of the popular video game "Draw Something" for about $200 million in its biggest acquisition to date as the company moves to expand its lineup of games on mobile devices and Facebook. A source familiar with the matter told Reuters that Zynga bought the New York-based company for $200 million. The company declined to comment on the deal's financials or say whether...
11:31 AM, Mar 22, 2012
New York: After a long wait and much speculation, Facebook filed for its IPO on Wednesday to raise a targeted $5 billion in a hotly anticipated initial public offering, setting the stage for Silicon Valley's biggest-ever IPO. Trading in Facebook shares won't begin for at least a few months more. The world's largest social network, a dorm room project for Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg that exploded in popularity and vaulted...
06:21 AM, Feb 02, 2012
New York: "We generate substantially all of our revenue and players through the Facebook platform and expect to continue to do so for the foreseeable future," Zynga wrote in its IPO prospectus. Technically, the admission is called a risk factor. But since Zynga, the wildly popular maker of mobile and social games such as "Mafia Wars" and "FarmVille," generates about 95 per cent of its revenue through Facebook, the worry...
10:42 AM, Dec 15, 2011
San Francisco: Zynga is betting a new crop of games and a self-run Internet service will help it fend off rivals and reduce its reliance on Facebook as it prepares to mount a hotly anticipated IPO. The company, which now dominates social gaming with aging titles like FarmVille, announced a slate of games on Tuesday to get into fresher territory from casinos to medieval landscapes. And it introduced 'Project Z,'...
02:01 PM, Oct 12, 2011
New York: Pop stars are lining up to make their debut in Facebook games from online game maker Zynga. First came Dr. Dre and Lady Gaga. Next week, an avatar of singer Enrique Iglesias will join CityVille, Zynga's most popular title. Starting Tuesday, CityVille players on Facebook will be able to interact with Iglesias's character when he visits their cities. They'll get to collect items the singer is known for...
07:17 PM, Sep 30, 2011
New York: Zynga Inc., the maker of popular online games such as FarmVille and CityVille, is being sued for patent infringement by a Texas gaming startup. Agincourt claims Zynga is violating two of its patents related to systems for redeeming prizes in games. The patents were awarded in 2001 and 2004. Zynga's "remarkable growth has not been driven by its own ingenuity or innovations," Agincourt said. "Rather, it has been...
08:04 AM, Aug 18, 2011
San Francisco: Internet search leader Google Inc is bringing a little more gamesmanship to its duel with Facebook. Just like they have been doing for years on Facebook's website, Web surfers will now be able to play games with their friends and family on Google's blossoming social networking service. Google's expansion into games, announced on Thursday, had been expected since the company unveiled its "Plus" networking service in late June....
09:37 AM, Aug 12, 2011
