Zynga’s New CEO Shakes Up Executive Team

Zynga filed a Form 8-K today announcing the deparure of David Ko, the COO.  According to a separation agreement (not filed), Ko gets four months of base salary plus a week for each year of service and a cash payment of $562,500.  He also gets some health insurance premiums.

Ko had a base salary for 2012 of $300,000, but he made about $4.5 million when bonuses and stock awards are added.  As of August 2, 2013 Ko held 660,408 shares of Class A common stock and 59,769 shares of Class B common stock, which are economically similar to Class A but have 7 votes per share.

In addition to Ko’s departure, Zynga’s blog posted an email from CEO, Don Mattrick, also announcing the departure of 2 more junior executives, Cadir Lee (Chief Technology Officer) and Colleen McCreary (Chief People Officer [Ed. – Seriously?]).  Lee and McCreary were not sufficiently senior in importance or pay to merit having their compensation disclosed publicly in Zynga’s proxy statement.

In the email, Mattrick described some organizational changes.  He addressed the “resignations” by saying he appreciated their contributions, etc…  He also described the changes to the executive team by saying:

Sounds to us like the “resignations” may not have been very voluntary.  Mattrick is putting his mark on the executive team.  We wouldn’t be surprised to see some new faces on Zynga executive team while more junior people are “densified,” allowing them to pursue other opportunities.