Scuffling game developer Zynga announced four executive promotions, along with the departure of Chief Financial Officer David Wehner, who is leaving Zynga to join Facebook as vice president, corporate finance and business planning.
As if Facebook game developer Zynga doesn’t have enough issues to contend with, it may also have to brace itself for a Nov. 5 attack from hacker group Anonymous.
Despite a bleak third-quarter financial report from game developer Zynga, Facebook still believes the company can rebound. After Co-Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted that the company’s revenue from Zynga has dipped 20 percent, a Facebook representative told select members of the media Thursday that the social network still has faith in the struggling game maker.
Facebook prides itself on being the social network. One of the main ways the site has facilitated connections is through games. Facebook discussed with select members of the press Thursday what makes them successful and how this platform will evolve in the future, using examples such as SongPop and Words with Friends to show how games transcend pixels.
The acquisitions of Radian6 in 2010 and Buddy Media in June are starting to catch up with Salesforce.com, as TechCrunch reported that the company amended its 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission to show $20 million in net losses for Buddy Media during the first six months of 2012, which reportedly led to the layoffs of fewer than 100 people from Radian6 and other areas of its Salesforce Marketing Cloud business.
Zynga’s days as the top dog in the Facebook gaming world appear to be fading. As challengers such as Kixeye and King.com emerge, taking up more of a share in the Facebook gaming ecosystem, Zynga’s financial stake has decreased. Sister site Inside Social Games reported Tuesday that Zynga has laid off more than 100 employees from its Austin office and plans to close its Boston studio.
The name Barbara C. Jacobs may not ring a bell for most readers, but the name of the assistant director for corporation finance at the Securities and Exchange Commission is definitely a familiar one in the offices of Facebook Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman and Fenwick & West, the social network’s law firm, as she and her staff were responsible for vetting the company’s initial public offering filing.
Facebook announced that it will present its financial report for the third quarter Oct. 23. Much has changed since Facebook’s second-quarter report July 26, when the company reported that it lost $156 million in that time frame, despite an increase in revenue. What will Co-Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg say about Facebook’s progress over the past three months?
By their very nature, sports are social, and social applications developer Fanhood officially launched a new social gaming platform on Facebook Tuesday aimed at allowing fans of all major professional and college sports to experience the games together.
Facebook’s most valuable property is also the thing it can’t afford to sell: personal information. As Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg spoke about advertising and revenue at the IAB MIXX event Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal went deeper into the internal struggle between the value of Facebook’s treasure trove of users’ information and its promise to protect it.
