As the dust begins to settle following yesterday’s massive, sweeping layoffs at Zynga, the extent of the damage is becoming more clear.
Remember when Zynga acquired OMGPOP last year for roughly $200M dollars? Yeah, OMGPOP essentially no longer exists.
According to tweets from company employees and the company’s Twitter account itself, most of the OMGPOP staff was let go, with their New York City office shuttered.
From OMGPOP’s former “VP of People”:
I learned via Facebook I was laid off today and @OMGPOP office is closed. Thanks @zynga for again reminding me how not to operate a business
— Ali Nicolas (@ali_nicolas) June 3, 2013
From its former Senior Community Manager:
Thanks for the concern everyone. Yep, I've been laid off (along with most of the studio). I'll share more details soon after I do my exit…
— Swiftor (@Swiftor) June 3, 2013
From the company itself:
While this is the last day at @zynga for many @omgpop staff, we want to thank you for all love and awesomeness over the years!
— omgpop (@omgpop) June 3, 2013
Zynga acquired OMGPOP at the height of its success, just as Draw Something — OMGPOP’s first real smash hit — was exploding onto handsets everywhere. By the time Zynga pushed an update to add their logo to the game, its popularity had already tapered.
Alas, it seems like the two companies never managed to find a comfortable way to sit together. We’ve heard previously that there was some pretty serious culture clash from day one — and just two months ago, OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter left the company after a statement he made during a panel was “taken out of context” to suggest that Zynga openly copies their competitors’ games. I didn’t realize that was still up for debate.
It’s unclear what Zynga intends to do with OMGPOP’s online gaming portal (the company’s primary focus before shfiting to mobile), and whether or not they’ll continue to use the OMGPOP brand.
I had drinks with a few now ex-Zynga’ers last night, most of whom were surprisingly upbeat about the whole thing. “The severance is enough to hold me over for a while,” said one “but most of my team had new jobs lined up by the time they left the building anyway.”
