Zynga COO quits: Game over for John Schappert

Zynga chief operating officer John Schappert has left the company as it struggles to recover from its poor financial performance and plummeting stock. The online gaming biz said in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission that Schappert was off, but the firm was keen to point out that his exit had nothing to do with …

[TheNSB]

Smell that?

Smells like comeuppance is coming...

[g e]

Tingalinnnnnggg

Is this a cheese shop?

Oh Yes, Sir!

I'd like to buy some Argyle Zynga Blue please....

It's a bit runny, Sir...

Facebook will probably buy them while they're going runny cheap, then they can keep the money in house.

[P_0]

Re: Tingalinnnnnggg

I doubt Facebook would buy them. They have no way of making a profit. There's no point. Better just keep milking them until they go under.

[Gerard Krupa]

Re: Tingalinnnnnggg

Given their recent deal with Hasbro for board versions of some of Zynga's rip-offs, they seems a more likely suitor.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Tingalinnnnnggg

The fact that Hasbro would deal with that pirate outfit company at all made me lose a lot of respect for the suits at Hasbro. I mean really, look what Hasbro is getting out of the deal:

http://www.licensemag.com/licensemag/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=784226

A Farmville version of the board game "Hungry Hungry Hippos?" Yeah, that looks like a really big winner to me. I bet it will really fly off the shelves. *yawn* Meanwhile, Zynga will be able to create online game versions of many of Hasbro's board games, and do it legally using Hasbro's trademarked names this time! Personally, I think Zynga's pulling a fast one on ol' Hasbro here and getting the lion's share of this deal, which irks me because I don't want to see anything that extends the life of the cutthroat Facebook leech any further.

[g e]

Re: Tingalinnnnnggg

Mind you, just looked at FarceBork's shares and they're pretty fecked, too... $20.72

[adam payne]

Sounds like a prime company for Facebook to snap up.

[Big_Ted]

Surely without farmville and its like facebook will lose half its logins a day and high millions of users.......

Que desperate buy by the Zuck to keep share price above $15........

[The Man Who Fell To Earth]

There's that little stock thing

You know, where the same quarter earnings were tanking but before it was publicly disclosed, insiders dumped half a billion dollars in stock? Part of that pesky shareholder lawsuit.

[David Gosnell]

Overseer of games

I'd have thought that was quite a minor role, in what is essentially an advertising business using pretty lame entertainment as the bait.

[Sloppy Crapmonster]

Zynga board games lol

Lizards and Ladders

Candy Realm

Cousin Wiggly

etc.

[cd]

Re: Zynga board games lol

And Oligopoly... or is that hitting a bit close?

Maybe the answer will show up in a round of Casual Chase.

[Fred Flintstone]

No surprise whatsoever

It shares the business model with Facebook: invade privacy to make money. The difference is that Facebook does it on its won, Zygna is dependent FB feeding it.

FB may buy it, but I suspect that FB will wait before the corpse has nearly stopped twitching. Their current share price gives no reason for largesse..

[asdf]

one born every minute

I know they won't admit it but everyone knows this company was named after Sheldon from Big Bang Theory catch phrase.

[Levente Szileszky]

It's Pincus' copycat operation with limited lifetime from the beginning...

It's Pincus' copycat operation with limited lifetime from the beginning...

...anyone can see just by looking at their games - all are blatant and unabashed ripoffs of existing games ever since Zynga's first appearance on the market...

Mafia Wars: http://techcrunch.com/2009/09/13/zynga-settles-mob-wars-litigation-as-it-settles-in-to-playdom-war/

Cafe World: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2009/12/cloning-or-theft-ars-explores-game-design-with-jenova-chen/

FarmVille: http://www.sfweekly.com/2010-09-08/news/farmvillains/

Dream Heights: http://toucharcade.com/2012/01/24/zynga-shamelessly-rips-off-tiny-tower-with-canadian-release-of-dream-heights/

Bingo: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-57368167-2/another-day-another-accusation-that-zynga-is-copying-competitors/

The key behind their modus operandi is this CEO/Parasite-in-Chief Pincus and his completely broken moral compass:

>>"I don't &^%ing want innovation," the ex-employee recalls Pincus saying. "You're not smarter than your competitor. Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers."<<

Besides being a free-riding parasite Pincus also exemplifies an utterly disgusting executive style: giving out shares when you are small and you desperately need talent and hard work and when money starts flowing in you simply force these small shareholder-employees to give it up right before your IPO? It's called *&^%bag in my dictionary:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204621904577018373223480802.html

I hardly ever root for EA but in this case I cannot wait to see them to grab and crush this parasite.