Don Mattrick leaves Zynga; Mark Pincus returns as CEO

Zynga, one of the top providers of social games, announced the departure of Don Mattrick as CEO of the company effective today. Mark Pincus, founder and chairman at Zynga, will once again return to the position of Chief Executive Officer.

“Don joined us in a very important time in our evolution. I sincerely thank him for his leadership in better serving our players in a mobile first world and for delivering world class quality and value to our consumers,” stated Mark Pincus. “The team’s hard work for our mobile players has resulted in bookings growing from 27% mobile bookings when Don joined to 60% by the end of last year. Further, to deliver unique and differentiated value to our mobile players, Don and the team acquired NaturalMotion. NaturalMotion has surprised and delighted the world with Clumsy Ninja and CSR Racing resulting in more than 160 million installs to date.”

Still, the company faces many challenges to overcome since the popularity of its games has diminished on social networks. However, Pincus seems optimistic about the future. “Now that we are a mobile first company, it’s time to renew our focus on our founding mission to connect the world through games and our vision to make play and social games a mass market activity. I am returning to the company that I love in order to accelerate innovation in the most popular categories like Action Strategy and strengthen our focus on our core areas like Invest and Express. I look forward to partnering with our leaders to intensify our focus on social experiences for the millions of consumers who play our games.”

“As a company, Zynga is in a stronger position today to serve mobile consumers and take advantage of the unprecedented growth opportunity across our industry. I am excited about the company’s trajectory and wish the best for Mark, Zynga and NaturalMotion as I plan to return to Canada to pursue my next challenge,” mentioned Don Mattrick.

Before joining Zynga in July 2013, Don Mattrick was the president of Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft.

[Source]: Zynga: Zynga CEO Don Mattrick to Depart; Founder and Chairman Mark Pincus to Return to Chief Executive Officer Role to Lead Zynga Into Next Chapter.