Zynga Inc. (Nasdaq:ZNGA), a leading provider of social game
services, today announced that it has appointed Frank Gibeau as
Chief Executive Officer effective March 7, 2016, reporting to
Zynga’s Board of Directors. Gibeau, who joined Zynga’s Board of
Directors in August 2015, is a gaming industry veteran, with 25
years of experience in interactive entertainment. Mark Pincus,
Zynga's founder and current CEO, will serve as Executive Chairman
of the Board, and will also report to Zynga’s Board of Directors.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/bb8a0508-85e0-4419-ad8a-a87400fec28e
“I recruited Frank seven months ago to become an active board
member to advise and coach our teams. Frank has mentored product
teams, led roadmap meetings and delivered inspiring talks to our
game making and PM communities. Frank has also been a big supporter
of our move to smaller more nimble teams. Equally important, we
have worked well together and share a common vision for Zynga
around mobile and social gaming,” said Pincus.
“Frank has a history of developing strong teams and shipping
market leading games. He is a seasoned leader with the experience
to quickly navigate the kinds of challenges we face on a weekly
basis. He has a proven 25-year track record having helped architect
the successful turnaround of Electronic Arts as the President of EA
Labels and more recently navigating the company’s platform
transition efforts as EVP of EA Mobile. In our industry he’s known
for driving operational excellence and leading winning teams on
both the publishing and studio side of the gaming business. In
terms of our respective roles, as CEO, Frank will report to our
Board, leading strategy and execution. I will focus on driving our
vision and working with a small number of live and new product
teams to help drive innovative new social experiences for our
players,” Pincus continued.
“I’m incredibly honored to join the Zynga team as CEO. Mark
founded Zynga with the simple premise that it’s more fun to play
games with other people and that social gaming was a path to the
mass market. I felt the power of this idea as a competitor and was
inspired by how Zynga reached unexpected new audiences and opened
up brand-new gaming platforms,” said Gibeau. “Despite the success
of mobile games, Mark and I believe that the full promise of Zynga
and social gaming has yet to be fully realized. We believe that
Zynga has an opportunity to create new social experiences to
connect even more players together. We will continue to invest in
our talent and build on our empowered, entrepreneurial culture. As
important, we must commit to a new level of operational excellence
with focused execution, engineered hits and strong cost discipline.
I’m excited to get started and expect a seamless transition given
the progress we’ve made together over the past seven months. I’m
encouraged by our early momentum and look forward to partnering
with our teams to build on the progress we’re seeing across the
company.”
Gibeau, 47, spent more than two decades at Electronic Arts Inc.,
where he held a number of influential business and product
leadership roles. Most recently he served as the Executive Vice
President of EA Mobile from October 2013 to May 2015, where he led
strategy, product development and publishing for the company’s
fast-growing mobile games business. In that role, Gibeau managed
EA’s portfolio of mobile franchises including The Simpsons: Tapped
Out, Plants vs. Zombies, Real Racing, Bejeweled, Star Wars,
Minions, SimCity, EA SPORTS, and The Sims.
Prior to that, Gibeau was President of EA Labels from 2011 to
2013, where he oversaw IP development, worldwide product management
and marketing for major console and PC properties including
Battlefield, FIFA, Madden NFL, Need for Speed, SimCity, Star Wars:
The Old Republic, Mass Effect, Dragon Age and The Sims. He also
spent four years as the President of the EA Games Label, where he
was responsible for a business turnaround that resulted in
increased product quality, on time game delivery and dramatically
reduced costs. Before that, Gibeau was EA’s Executive Vice
President and General Manager of The Americas, where he was
directly responsible for a publishing operation that accounted for
more than $1.5 billion of EA’s annual revenue.
"We are excited to have Frank Gibeau expand his role at Zynga
and become the Chief Executive Officer. Since Frank joined the
Board, Mark and Frank’s strategic partnership and shared passion
for social mobile gaming has positively inspired our teams and
business. We're confident of a successful, seamless transition
because of Frank's hands-on contributions in the last seven months.
We look forward to them leading our great teams to deliver winning
products for consumers,” said John Doerr, lead Independent Director
of Zynga’s Board of Directors and General Partner at Kleiner
Perkins Caufield & Byers.
“Teaming Mark, the Founder and Executive Chairman, with Frank as
Chief Executive Officer is the right leadership combination to take
Zynga’s culture of innovation and entrepreneurship to the next
level of strategic and executional excellence. I spend a lot of
time working with CEOs and Frank is one of the most qualified,
strategic leaders I’ve ever met. I believe he will motivate Zynga’s
business and game teams with world-class leadership and a drive for
operational excellence, while Mark focuses on his passion for
bringing our social gaming vision to life,” said Louis J. Lavigne,
Jr., member of Zynga’s Board of Directors and Audit Committee
Chair, and former Genentech Inc. EVP and Chief Financial
Officer.
“Frank is a great leader with an impressive turnaround track
record. He successfully navigated multiple business and platform
transitions during his nearly 25 years at Electronic Arts. He
created some of the biggest brands in our industry, built and
scaled a leading mobile freemium business, and he has elicited
outstanding work from game, finance and operations teams. Frank's
publishing, team-building and franchise management skills, coupled
with his chemistry with Mark and the leadership team are just the
right ingredients for Zynga to connect the world with social
games,” said Bing Gordon, member of Zynga’s Board of Directors and
General Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Frank Gibeau Biographical Information
Frank Gibeau is a mobile, PC and console gaming industry
veteran, with 25 years of experience in interactive entertainment.
He serves as Zynga’s Chief Executive Officer and a member of the
Board of Directors at Zynga.
Mr. Gibeau spent more than two decades at Electronic Arts Inc.,
where he held a number of influential business and product
leadership roles. Most recently he served as the Executive Vice
President of EA Mobile from October 2013 to May 2015, where he led
strategy, product development and publishing for the company’s
fast-growing mobile games business. In that role, Mr. Gibeau
managed EA’s portfolio of popular mobile franchises including The
Simpsons: Tapped Out, Plants vs. Zombies, Real Racing, Bejeweled,
Star Wars, Minions, SimCity, EA SPORTS, and The Sims. He also
spearheaded the creation of new mobile intellectual property and
platform technology, as well as EA’s Chillingo publishing
operation.
Prior to that, Mr. Gibeau was President of EA Labels from 2011
to 2013, where he oversaw IP development, worldwide product
management and marketing for major console and PC properties
including Battlefield, FIFA, Madden NFL, Need for Speed, SimCity,
Star Wars: The Old Republic, Mass Effect, Dragon Age and The Sims.
He also spent four years as the President of the EA Games Label,
where he was responsible for a business turnaround that resulted in
increased product quality, on time game delivery and dramatically
reduced costs. Before that, Mr. Gibeau acted as EA’s Executive Vice
President and General Manager of The Americas, where he was
directly responsible for a publishing operation that accounted for
more than $1.5 billion of EA’s annual revenue. While at EA, Mr.
Gibeau also served as Executive Producer of the major motion
picture “Need For Speed,” which was released in 2014.
Mr. Gibeau is currently a director of Graphiq, a data
visualization company, and the Vice Chairman of the Corporate
Advisory Board for the Marshall School of Business at the
University of Southern California, and he previously served on the
Board of Directors of Cooliris, an Internet technology company. Mr.
Gibeau received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration
from the University of Southern California and a Masters of
Business Administration from Santa Clara University.
About Zynga Inc.
Zynga Inc. is a leading developer of the world's most popular
social games that are played by millions of monthly consumers. The
company has created evergreen franchises such as FarmVille, Zynga
Casino and Words With Friends. Zynga's NaturalMotion, an
Oxford-based mobile game and technology developer, is the creator
of hit mobile games in popular entertainment categories, including
CSR Racing, CSR Classics and Clumsy Ninja. Zynga games have been
played by more than 1 billion people around the world and are
available on a number of global platforms including Apple iOS,
Google Android, Facebook and Zynga.com. The company is
headquartered in San Francisco, Calif. Learn more about Zynga at
http://blog.zynga.com or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
The Zynga Inc. logo is available at
http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=11743
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward looking statements relating
to, among other things, the appointment of Frank Gibeau as our new
Chief Executive Officer, the resignation of Mark Pincus from his
position as Chief Executive Officer, the appointment of Mark Pincus
as our new Executive Chairman, the success of our executives in
their new roles, our potential and the potential of the mobile
gaming industry, our future operational plans, strategies and
prospects, the success of our cost discipline, our transition
process and the success of our turnaround, the strength of our
future games slate, our ability to take advantage of the growth
opportunity across our industry, the consumer success of our games,
our ability to create innovative new social experiences for our
consumers, our ability to launch engineered hits, our ability to
deliver winning products for consumers, and our ability to realize
our social gaming vision and connect the world through games.
Forward-looking statements often include words such as "outlook,"
"projected," "intends," "will," "anticipate," "believe," "target,"
"expect," and statements in the future tense are generally
forward-looking. The achievement or success of the matters covered
by such forward-looking statements involves significant risks,
uncertainties, and assumptions. Our actual results could differ
materially from those predicted or implied and reported results
should not be considered as an indication of our future
performance.
More information about factors that could affect our operating
results is included under the captions "Risk Factors" and
"Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and
Results of Operations" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2015, copies of which may be obtained by
visiting our Investor Relations web site at
http://investor.zynga.com or the SEC's web site at www.sec.gov.
Undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking
statements in this release, which are based on information
available to us on the date hereof. There is no guarantee that the
circumstances described in our forward-looking statements will
occur. We assume no obligation to update such statements.
Contact:
PressStephanie Hess415-503-0303press@zynga.com
InvestorsMelissa Fisher415-339-5266investors@zynga.com
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