Zynga Lays Off 15% of Its Workforce

Eagerly looking forward to the explanation for this weird juxtaposition.<p><a href="http://i.imgur.com/huUv09m.png" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;huUv09m.png</a>

Schadenzyngafreude: The good, but somewhat guilty feeling of pleasure in being right about an overhyped venture in what everyone knows is a rotten market segment.

Did Zynga lay off 15% of its workforce to recoup the $527M investment it made in NaturalMotion? See <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7153395" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=7153395</a><p>This article says they&#x27;ll take a $17M charge this year on the lay off and then save about $33M&#x2F;year. Discounted at 6% per annum that works out to $533M. See <a href="http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=-17+%2B+Sum%5B33%2F1.06%5En%2C%7Bn%2C1%2Cinf%7D%5D" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wolframalpha.com&#x2F;input&#x2F;?i=-17+%2B+Sum%5B33%2F1.06...</a><p>The other article says Zynga has &quot;about $1.2 billion in cash and marketable securities on hand.&quot; But a dailyfinance article suggests companies aren&#x27;t really as cash rich as they seem; their money is locked up in offshore tax havens; they can&#x27;t repatriate it without paying tax on it: <a href="http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/07/25/why-are-rich-companies-laying-off-poor-workers/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.dailyfinance.com&#x2F;2011&#x2F;07&#x2F;25&#x2F;why-are-rich-companie...</a>

Only 15%? They&#x27;re doing better than I expected!

Serious: Why are people still working for this company?

Could it be that some of the people who are a part of NaturalMotion are redundant, so they chose to keep the NaturalMotion employees rather than the Zynga employees? I&#x27;m not defending them or laying off employees, but there could be more to it than what we are actually seeing here.

So, it appears they laid off 15% of their workforce to make room for NaturalMotion&#x27;s workforce.

Firing people is a natural part of doing business. Decision should be judged (morally) on the margin. If I fire 100 people, I haven&#x27;t resulted in 100 people never being able to work again, I have simply shifted them to their next-best option.

Just got word from a friend that the entire Zynga Seattle office is being closed. :(<p><a href="http://www.geekwire.com/2014/zynga-closes-seattle-office/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.geekwire.com&#x2F;2014&#x2F;zynga-closes-seattle-office&#x2F;</a>

Am I the only one that thinks 15% could be too low? Unless they are rapidly investing in new games, it seems like they&#x27;re on a &quot;Milk what you have, and buy what you don&#x27;t&quot; strategy.

No matter how you rationalize this, it&#x27;s still a loss of 1500 jobs - their replacements financed by the very profit those employees helped generate.

Woah. I&#x27;m surprised they still have a workforce.