Zynga's latest unraveling: Pincus out as product chief
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Since its disappointing IPO in 2011, Zynga has been infamous for its revolving door of C-level executives.
Now the beleaguered social gaming company's founder and previous CEO is finding himself going through that process again.
The San Francisco-based company announced alongside its first quarter earnings report on Wednesday that Mark Pincus would be stepping down from all operational roles -- namely as chief product officer -- to focus on work as Zynga's chairman.
Pincus already stepped down from serving as CEO. He was replaced by Don Mattrick, the former president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, who stepped in last summer.
"Going forward, with Mark in his role as Chairman of the Board, we will continue to be close partners and work together to achieve our winning aspiration to be the at scale industry leader by delivering more #1 games in more categories than any other competitor," Mattrick wrote in a statement.
This is actually the second big shift of the month given that Zynga's chief financial officer and chief accounting officer Mark Vranesh already announced his departure. Vranesh was replaced by David Lee, who succeeded both roles, effective April 14.
Zynga also slipped in a few other new hires alongside the Pincus announcement, including the addition of Alex Garden as president of Zynga Studios, effective May 5. Garden also comes from the Xbox Live and Music teams at Microsoft.
Additionally, Zynga tapped Academy Award nominated visual artist Henry LaBounta as its first chief visual officer and Jennifer Nuckles as the new chief marketing officer. Nuckles most recently served as CMO at Plum District, an e-commerce platform targeted toward women.
Zynga has had a rough time of it over the last three years. Most of the trouble (at least from a public standpoint) has been most visible by the long string of exits by senior executives. More recently, Zynga lost its chief operating officer and chief technology officer in August.
Zynga reported a net loss of $61 million, or seven cents per share. Non-GAAP losses were a penny a share on a revenue of $168 million -- down from nearly $264 million during the same quarter last year.
Wall Street was also expecting a loss of a penny per share but with revenue around $196 million.
CORRECTION: The analyst consensus was closer to $164 million.