In Addition to Layoffs in US, Zynga Contemplates Closing Japan Office

Techcrunch is reporting that Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA) is laying off five percent of its full-time employees (about 160 people) and sunsetting 13 of its games. CEO Mark Pinkus’s internal note is cited, adding further:

We are closing the Zynga Boston studio and proposing closures of the Zynga Japan and UK studios. Additionally, we are reducing staffing levels in our Austin studio. All of these represent terrific entrepreneurial teams, which make this decision so difficult.

I’m not sure how Zynga is doing in the rest of Asia, but subsequent to the recent announcement that advertising network Komli Media had partnered with Zynga to display ads in games across many APAC countries, I asked Komli for some specific figures about the state of Zynga’s business in the region. Komli (and Zynga) did not share any metrics, but did say that the numbers for Asia are “very healthy.”

I don’t want to draw any premature conclusions – you can do that on your own if you choose. But I will say that when a company is doing well, it usually isn’t shy about sharing some numbers that illustrate that success. Zynga does have its third quarter earnings call coming up today [1], so it’s possible that they just preferred to hold back a bit.

Speaking of earnings calls, Mark Zuckerberg also just pointed out in Facebook’s earnings call that the payments his company received from Zynga have dropped significantly, while those of other companies on the Facebook platform have grown.

[Source: TechCrunch, photo: Daijob]