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Reports have surfaced that Zynga is laying off over 500 employees as well as shutting down three of its offices, likely as part of its refocus on mobile development.

Kris Ligman, Blogger

June 3, 2013

2 Min Read

Zynga is closing the doors of its Los Angeles, New York and Dallas offices, with 520 employees facing layoffs -- 18 percent of its total workforce. These cuts are part of Zynga's efforts to consolidate and refocus on mobile. The layoffs follow only two months after Zynga was reported doubling the salary of its top executives. Tweets from employees are already beginning to surface confirming the layoffs and studio closures. Meanwhile, Zynga founder and CEO Mark Pincus's letter to employees regarding the studio restructuring has appeared on Zynga's corporate blog. It reads in part:

Today is a hard day for Zynga and an emotional one for every employee of our company. We are saying painful goodbyes to about 18% of our Zynga brothers and sisters. The impact of these layoffs will be felt across every group in the company.

A press release from Zynga said the layoffs will be "substantially complete" by August this year. The company also downgraded its financial guidance for the fiscal quarter ending in June. Zynga is now projecting quarterly net losses of between $39 million and $28.5 million, down from previous guidance of net losses between $36.5 million to $26.5 million. Zynga also said today that it expects quarterly bookings to be in the lower half of its guidance, which stands at $180 million to $190 million. "Bookings" is a specific metric that Zynga uses to measure sales of virtual goods and advertising. Gamasutra has reached out to Zynga for additional comment. If you are a Zynga employee who has been affected by these layoffs, please get in touch with us at [email protected]. All confidentiality will be upheld. Update: It would appear that Zynga has closed Draw Something studio OMGPOP -- the company that it acquired for $180 million just over a year ago. Former OMGPOP VP Ali Nicolas tweeted about the closure, while the official OMGPOP Twitter noted that "This is the last day at Zynga for many Omgpop staff."

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