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I'm surprised to see so many people suggesting that Zynga's problems are purely moral. I think that gives them too much credit. I personally have no problem wit

by dkrich 14y ago

I'm surprised to see so many people suggesting that Zynga's problems are purely moral. I think that gives them too much credit. I personally have no problem with their business practices from a strictly moral point of view. Caveat Emptor. No, for me the problem is much simpler. Its a shitty business run by very poor business minds. That may sound dramatic and sensational, but let's consider the facts: they paid $250 million for a company of 15 developers whose most valuable asset was a mobile version of Pictionary that had been on the market for just three months. Completely unprofitable, they built a multilmillion dollar state of the art office in San Francisco. That's something you do when you are wildly successful, maybe. I work for a company many orders of magnitude more successful than Zynga and our office looks like a dungeon. So what? That's being wise with cashflow. That's a company I want to invest in. Finally, a friend of mine works for Zynga and he was regularly taking all expense paid trips. For his one year anniversary he was sent to England and Ireland as a reward. I don't think of Zynga's management as sinister evildoers. I think of them as immature and completely unfit to manage a company. I say good riddance but I do hope those laid off find better opportunities soon.

gm 14y ago
I'm gonna call bullshit on your friend's claim of all expense paid trip purely as a one year anniversary gift from Zynga. Here is when you get such perks at Zynga: - You win some sort of company-wide award at the quarterly meeting. You (or your team) did something awesome and you are getting rewarded. - You get a big quarter-end cash bonus and you spend it on your trip. - It's not actually a vacation. You are on a business trip and maybe you convince your manager to delay your return and you take off for vacation time at that time. - 25% of your stock options vest on your first anniversary and you cash in and spend on your trip. Assuming you got a boatload of options if you take into account the stock price. That's all I can think of. But what DO you get as a prize for your one year anniversary? Some studios put your name up on a poster... That's about it. The rest is by merit. And as to your immature and completely unfit comment: I call bullshit on that as well. People like that do not get the type of funding that Zynga got. They do not get superstars on their board like Zynga does (Reid Hoffman, Bing Gordon, Jeffrey Katzenberg, etc). And people like that definitely do not get a company to go public. So, yeah, I call bullshit.
- dkrich 14y ago
  I think if that's the only point in all that which you find fault with, then my point is pretty well proven. Oh, and you can point at the board of directors and all of their past successes as if that somehow proves that the company is well run. I can point at the balance sheet and stock price. Facts are stubborn things.
  - gm 14y ago
    At the end of the day critics are a dime a dozen. This is not the forum nor do I have the time nor do I care enough to argue, so I won't bother to poke holes in your logic.
- tatsuke95 14y ago
  >"I call bullshit on that as well. People like that do not get the type of funding that Zynga got." I think we should measure the executives "fitness" based on the fact that the stock is below book value less than one year after the IPO, rather than the fact that they managed to attract some cool people to the board.
potatolicious 14y ago
> "No, for me the problem is much simpler. Its a shitty business run by very poor business minds." Or maybe they were very shrewd business minds. After all, you have a business that was very much a fad - and any insider would be able to tell you that, but yet somehow you've convinced the wider world that this was a sustainable new trend, and to pour unimaginable amounts of money into your company. So, tons of funding, and you can see the cliff at the end of the train tracks. What do you do? Lavish offices? Lavish perks? Lavish accoutrements? Lavish trips? Horrifically irresponsible and downright illegal? Perhaps. But in the circumstances, perhaps the best (selfish) move.
- dkrich 14y ago
  Fair enough, but I still think my point stands. I suppose if their goal was to make a quick-hit and get rich very quickly while making a lot of people's lives much worse, then they succeeded. I believe that gives them too much credit. I don't believe that they knew this was coming and loaded their pockets while everybody else was confused. Either way I still say good riddance.

by dkrich 14y ago

gm 14y ago

I'm gonna call bullshit on your friend's claim of all expense paid trip purely as a one year anniversary gift from Zynga. Here is when you get such perks at Zynga: - You win some sort of company-wide award at the quarterly meeting. You (or your team) did something awesome and you are getting rewarded. - You get a big quarter-end cash bonus and you spend it on your trip. - It's not actually a vacation. You are on a business trip and maybe you convince your manager to delay your return and you take off for vacation time at that time. - 25% of your stock options vest on your first anniversary and you cash in and spend on your trip. Assuming you got a boatload of options if you take into account the stock price. That's all I can think of. But what DO you get as a prize for your one year anniversary? Some studios put your name up on a poster... That's about it. The rest is by merit. And as to your immature and completely unfit comment: I call bullshit on that as well. People like that do not get the type of funding that Zynga got. They do not get superstars on their board like Zynga does (Reid Hoffman, Bing Gordon, Jeffrey Katzenberg, etc). And people like that definitely do not get a company to go public. So, yeah, I call bullshit.

dkrich 14y ago
I think if that's the only point in all that which you find fault with, then my point is pretty well proven. Oh, and you can point at the board of directors and all of their past successes as if that somehow proves that the company is well run. I can point at the balance sheet and stock price. Facts are stubborn things.
- gm 14y ago
  At the end of the day critics are a dime a dozen. This is not the forum nor do I have the time nor do I care enough to argue, so I won't bother to poke holes in your logic.
tatsuke95 14y ago
>"I call bullshit on that as well. People like that do not get the type of funding that Zynga got." I think we should measure the executives "fitness" based on the fact that the stock is below book value less than one year after the IPO, rather than the fact that they managed to attract some cool people to the board.

potatolicious 14y ago

> "No, for me the problem is much simpler. Its a shitty business run by very poor business minds." Or maybe they were very shrewd business minds. After all, you have a business that was very much a fad - and any insider would be able to tell you that, but yet somehow you've convinced the wider world that this was a sustainable new trend, and to pour unimaginable amounts of money into your company. So, tons of funding, and you can see the cliff at the end of the train tracks. What do you do? Lavish offices? Lavish perks? Lavish accoutrements? Lavish trips? Horrifically irresponsible and downright illegal? Perhaps. But in the circumstances, perhaps the best (selfish) move.

dkrich 14y ago
Fair enough, but I still think my point stands. I suppose if their goal was to make a quick-hit and get rich very quickly while making a lot of people's lives much worse, then they succeeded. I believe that gives them too much credit. I don't believe that they knew this was coming and loaded their pockets while everybody else was confused. Either way I still say good riddance.