Zynga Announces Earnings, Acquisition, And Personnel Cut - Printer Friendly version without Comments

Appeared on: Friday, January 31, 2014
Zynga Announces Earnings, Acquisition, And Personnel Cut

Zynga has announced 2013 full year and fourth quarter results, the acquisition of mobile game developer NaturalMotion and plans to cut jobs.

For the quarter ended Dec 31, Zynga's revenue fell to $176.4 million from $311.16 million a year prior. Excluding certain items, it reported a net loss per share of 3 cents.

The company forecast first-quarter revenue in the range of $155 million to $165 million.

The company also reported $716.2 million in annual bookings, down from $1.1 billion in the year prior.

"Over the last 7 months, our teams have been working with a sense of urgency," said CEO Don Mattrick in a statement. "We finished 2013 in a strong position and expect 2014 to be a growth year.

"Our market is growing as measured by device, audience and dollars and we have the privilege to compete in one of the fastest growing parts of the entertainment industry. We have an ambitious agenda and we are moving quickly to add capabilities that are complementary and strategic to our core growth plans," he added.

The company also announced that it has acquired NaturalMotion, a privately held mobile gaming company that has developed CSR Racing and Clumsy Ninja. Zynga paid around $527 million for NaturalMotion, including $391 million in cash and 39.8 million Zynga shares at its $3.42 close price on January 29.

"NaturalMotion set out to make games that wow millions of people, by being obsessed with quality, disrupting and creating genres, and using almost magical technology," said Natural Motion CEO Torsten Reil. "We?ve reached our first milestones - creating #1 top-grossing and top-free titles - on our own. We can't wait to see what we can achieve together with Zynga."

Finally, Zynga announced plans to cutt 314 employees, approximately 15% of its workforce.