Zynga COO stripped of game duties amid stock tanking, lawsuits

![][1]

One of [Zynga][2]'s largest acquisitions, [EA][3]'s very own John Schappert (now the developer's COO), doesn't seem to be providing the return on investment that the [FarmVille][4] maker had likely hoped for. [Bloomberg reports][5] that Schappert has been stripped of his game oversight duties in a move to return to growth and see its mobile division take focus, according to nameless sources.

Zynga's head of mobile, David Ko, along with executive VP of games Steve Chiang no longer report to Schappert but directly to the head honcho himself, Mark Pincus. Schappert was, according to Bloomberg, paid a cool $42.8 to partially step down, taking some of the blame for the company's poor performance as of late.

Not only does this news come as Zynga overhauls with a focus on mobile, but as top executives within the company are accused of insider trading, [Joystiq reports][6]. The executives, including Mr. Pincus, allegedly enlisted the help of underwriters at Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and more. The upside? [Ruby Blast][7] is pretty fun ... no?

[Via [The Verge][8]]

**Are you surprised by these developments? Are you excited for Zynga's renewed focus on mobile games? Sound off in the comments. [Add Comment.][9]**



[Permalink][10] | [Email this][11] | [Linking Blogs][12] | [Comments][13]

[![][14]][15] [![][16]][17]

![][18]

[1]: http://o.aolcdn.com/dims/GAME/5/168/168/100/http://www.blogcdn.com/blog.games.com/media/2012/08/screen-shot-2012-08-01-at-10.11.21-am.png
[2]: http://blog.games.com/tag/zynga
[3]: http://blog.games.com/tag/ea
[4]: http://blog.games.com/category/farmville
[5]: http://washpost.bloomberg.com/Story?docId=1376-M81DUN1A74E901-58B344E9S2S6B6H7LV1V3NOBUV
[6]: http://www.joystiq.com/2012/07/31/zynga-hit-with-insider-trading-lawsuit-as-execs-cash-out-before/
[7]: http://blog.games.com/tag/ruby+blast
[8]: http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/8/1/3212303/schappert-stripped-of-game-duties-as-zynga-shifts-toward-mobile-games
[9]: http://blog.games.com/2012/08/01/zynga-coo-loses-game-duties/#disqus_thread
[10]: http://blog.games.com/2012/08/01/zynga-coo-loses-game-duties/ (Permanent link to this entry)
[11]: http://blog.games.com/forward/20290767/ (Send this entry to a friend via email)
[12]: http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&fc=1&url=http://blog.games.com/2012/08/01/zynga-coo-loses-game-duties/ (Linking Blogs)
[13]: http://blog.games.com/2012/08/01/zynga-coo-loses-game-duties/#comments (View reader comments on this entry)
[14]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/LarrysCorner?d=qj6IDK7rITs
[15]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/LarrysCorner?a=ko3wmdP8BV0:xYPsohQF0gA:qj6IDK7rITs
[16]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/LarrysCorner?d=yIl2AUoC8zA
[17]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/LarrysCorner?a=ko3wmdP8BV0:xYPsohQF0gA:yIl2AUoC8zA
[18]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/LarrysCorner/~4/ko3wmdP8BV0

URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LarrysCorner/~3/ko3wmdP8BV0/