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Cash runs out, especially with their overhead. Sure, the downsizing helped, but there's no reason they need that kind of staffing. VC's will push for huge hires

Cash runs out, especially with their overhead. Sure, the downsizing helped, but there's no reason they need that kind of staffing. VC's will push for huge hires in the beginning. But the company has been taking for well over a year. The IPO was a scam, Pincus raped the price and stole $200M. The SEC should investigate him 100% They need a good product. They don't have one. They probably won't have one since their entire company revolves around copying former titles (like the Sim games). I wonder what happened with the EA assault on Zynga?

newnewnew 13y ago
The shitty thing is that all of Pincus's sins will be forgotten the next time he starts a company because in Silicon Valley a man's worth is measured by his bank account.
- dakrisht 13y ago
  Ain't that the truth. Some believe in karma, maybe he doesn't. This will change. Look at Kleiner - investment after investment = flop after flop. Cleantech. Ouya. What's next? Institutional money, pension funds, high-net worth individuals, sovereign wealth funds, etc. will all start realizing and cracking down on these idiotic investments left and right. It's like the eyeballs craze of the 90s. Have a site? 100,000 eyeballs a month? Shit, you're a $500M company. You'll make money somehow in the future, we believe in you. Yeah, we remember what happened then.
  - uptown 13y ago
    It'll get worse. The JOBS Act will allow even more individual investors to get duped by guys like him by crowdfunding his next big "idea".
- hkmurakami 13y ago
  the funny ironic thing is that his scamming prowess is something that makes him a good investment for many VCS. once ahner asked me (because I had made some moral corporate standard statements) whether I would as avc invest in a hypothetical next startup by asshole Steve Jobs. not entirely sure if I could resist that one but I'd never invest in Pincus's next startup out go work for it.
- foobarqux 13y ago
  They won't be forgotten by any employees he promises equity to.
- josh2600 13y ago
  Sigh, I would agree with you except this is kind of the third time he's done this... Support.com, massive lawsuit for "computer checkup ads" Tribe.net, The community that owns the "island of lost toys". Basically a relatively successful social network that went belly up for a number of reasons and Zynga, the red-headed stepchild of the Facebook platform. So, IMHO, no one will remember Zynga the next time Pincus has a startup, just like no one remembers tribe or support.com.
lmartel 13y ago
Could anyone give a brief summary of why the IPO was a scam and what exactly Pincus did?
- dakrisht 13y ago
  Pincus being a self-proclaimed scammer: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/96024-Zynga-CEO-Admits-to-Being-a-Scammer http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/96024-Zynga-CEO-Ad... Little on the IPO here: http://www.businessinsider.com/zynga-stock-price-valuation-2011-12 http://www.businessinsider.com/zynga-stock-price-valuation-2...
SimHacker 13y ago
They counter-sued each other and settled out of court. The terms are secret, but Zynga phased out The Ville. EA and Zynga Settle The Ville -The Sims: Social Lawsuits: http://gamepolitics.com/2013/02/15/ea-and-zynga-settle-ville-sims-social-lawsuits#.UfHFkGQ-Iac http://gamepolitics.com/2013/02/15/ea-and-zynga-settle-ville... Breaking: EA and Zynga reach settlement in lawsuit surrounding The Ville: http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2013/02/15/breaking-ea-and-zynga-reach-settlement-in-lawsuit-surrounding-the-ville/ http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2013/02/15/breaking-ea-and-... No, EA, you are not “standing up for the industry” by suing Zynga: http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2012/08/24/no-ea-you-are-not-standing-up-for-the-industry-by-suing-zynga/ http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2012/08/24/no-ea-you-are-no... The Ville was obviously a graphical and mechanical rip-off of The Sims, with a thick helping of Zynga Sauce slathered on top. Having worked on the original version of The Sims, and knowing a bunch of former Sims designers and developers who now or recently worked at Zynga, I thought that The Sims Social was itself, modulo the original Sims stuff at its core, an almost literal rip-off of the cliché "social game" mechanics that are the signature of Zynga's game, but that was EA's sweet and fitting revenge for Zynga ripping off theirs and everybody else's games. (But no, EA wasn't "standing up for the game industry", it was just a bully bullying back at another bully.) So Zynga copied The Sims and added their own "stuff" on top, then they got mad when EA copied Zynga's own stuff back on top of The Sims to make it into a "social game". Tough shit, assholes! Really sucks when somebody does the same thing back to you that you did to them, doesn't it, huh? The judge must have had a big laugh at both their expenses. I suppose it's a good thing that they settled out of court, so they didn't established any legal precedents that you can't copy generic game elements. So if all The Sims Social was meant to do was to screw over Zynga the same way Zynga had been screwing over other companies, then it was a spectacular success, and a brilliant piece of performance art, and parroting all those clichéd design decisions was justified! But was that the best direction to take the Sims franchise in as a game...? Well that's a different question! ;)

newnewnew 13y ago

The shitty thing is that all of Pincus's sins will be forgotten the next time he starts a company because in Silicon Valley a man's worth is measured by his bank account.

dakrisht 13y ago
Ain't that the truth. Some believe in karma, maybe he doesn't. This will change. Look at Kleiner - investment after investment = flop after flop. Cleantech. Ouya. What's next? Institutional money, pension funds, high-net worth individuals, sovereign wealth funds, etc. will all start realizing and cracking down on these idiotic investments left and right. It's like the eyeballs craze of the 90s. Have a site? 100,000 eyeballs a month? Shit, you're a $500M company. You'll make money somehow in the future, we believe in you. Yeah, we remember what happened then.
- uptown 13y ago
  It'll get worse. The JOBS Act will allow even more individual investors to get duped by guys like him by crowdfunding his next big "idea".
hkmurakami 13y ago
the funny ironic thing is that his scamming prowess is something that makes him a good investment for many VCS. once ahner asked me (because I had made some moral corporate standard statements) whether I would as avc invest in a hypothetical next startup by asshole Steve Jobs. not entirely sure if I could resist that one but I'd never invest in Pincus's next startup out go work for it.
foobarqux 13y ago
They won't be forgotten by any employees he promises equity to.
josh2600 13y ago
Sigh, I would agree with you except this is kind of the third time he's done this... Support.com, massive lawsuit for "computer checkup ads" Tribe.net, The community that owns the "island of lost toys". Basically a relatively successful social network that went belly up for a number of reasons and Zynga, the red-headed stepchild of the Facebook platform. So, IMHO, no one will remember Zynga the next time Pincus has a startup, just like no one remembers tribe or support.com.

lmartel 13y ago

Could anyone give a brief summary of why the IPO was a scam and what exactly Pincus did?

dakrisht 13y ago
Pincus being a self-proclaimed scammer: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/96024-Zynga-CEO-Admits-to-Being-a-Scammer http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/96024-Zynga-CEO-Ad... Little on the IPO here: http://www.businessinsider.com/zynga-stock-price-valuation-2011-12 http://www.businessinsider.com/zynga-stock-price-valuation-2...

SimHacker 13y ago

They counter-sued each other and settled out of court. The terms are secret, but Zynga phased out The Ville. EA and Zynga Settle The Ville -The Sims: Social Lawsuits: http://gamepolitics.com/2013/02/15/ea-and-zynga-settle-ville-sims-social-lawsuits#.UfHFkGQ-Iac http://gamepolitics.com/2013/02/15/ea-and-zynga-settle-ville... Breaking: EA and Zynga reach settlement in lawsuit surrounding The Ville: http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2013/02/15/breaking-ea-and-zynga-reach-settlement-in-lawsuit-surrounding-the-ville/ http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2013/02/15/breaking-ea-and-... No, EA, you are not “standing up for the industry” by suing Zynga: http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2012/08/24/no-ea-you-are-not-standing-up-for-the-industry-by-suing-zynga/ http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2012/08/24/no-ea-you-are-no... The Ville was obviously a graphical and mechanical rip-off of The Sims, with a thick helping of Zynga Sauce slathered on top. Having worked on the original version of The Sims, and knowing a bunch of former Sims designers and developers who now or recently worked at Zynga, I thought that The Sims Social was itself, modulo the original Sims stuff at its core, an almost literal rip-off of the cliché "social game" mechanics that are the signature of Zynga's game, but that was EA's sweet and fitting revenge for Zynga ripping off theirs and everybody else's games. (But no, EA wasn't "standing up for the game industry", it was just a bully bullying back at another bully.) So Zynga copied The Sims and added their own "stuff" on top, then they got mad when EA copied Zynga's own stuff back on top of The Sims to make it into a "social game". Tough shit, assholes! Really sucks when somebody does the same thing back to you that you did to them, doesn't it, huh? The judge must have had a big laugh at both their expenses. I suppose it's a good thing that they settled out of court, so they didn't established any legal precedents that you can't copy generic game elements. So if all The Sims Social was meant to do was to screw over Zynga the same way Zynga had been screwing over other companies, then it was a spectacular success, and a brilliant piece of performance art, and parroting all those clichéd design decisions was justified! But was that the best direction to take the Sims franchise in as a game...? Well that's a different question! ;)