<story><title>Zynga to Lay Off 520 Employees and shutter NY and LA Offices</title><url>http://allthingsd.com/20130603/zynga-to-lay-off-520-employees-18-percent-of-staff-and-shutter-new-york-and-la-offices/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>cletus</author><text>I feel bad for those who put their blood, sweat and tears into building Zynga.&lt;p&gt;I feel bad for those who have just lost their jobs.&lt;p&gt;I feel bad for those who remain under a cloud with the only comment they get is self-deflecting language from their CEO like &quot;brothers and sisters&quot;.&lt;p&gt;Who I don&apos;t feel bad for is Mark Pincus. The collapse of Zynga couldn&apos;t happen to a more deserving person. Just 18 months ago when Zynga was on top of the world, Pincus made a name for himself by bullying staff to give back stock options [1] for no other reason than he thought they didn&apos;t deserve such a huge windfall.&lt;p&gt;Well those chickens have come home to roost. Those same employers will be the first to take flight having no further loyalty to the company.&lt;p&gt;I also know that I wouldn&apos;t work for Pincus. He&apos;s shown his true character with this petty greed (how much difference did this make to him personally really?).&lt;p&gt;Frankly I&apos;d hesitate in working for any company backed by the same VCs that let this happen. To allow this erosion of what I&apos;d call the &quot;startup bargain&quot; (trading salary for equity) by greatly reducing the upside is shortsighted and undermines the very conditions that makes the startup scene thrive and succeed.&lt;p&gt;As much as I viewed Groupon as a scam (a Ponzi scheme essentially), Andrew Mason&apos;s parting words [2] after getting fired gained him a lot of respect (from me at least) as they were authentic and didn&apos;t seek to cast blame elsewhere. In fact he went so far as to make a joke of &quot;spending more time with my family&quot; (which we all know is a euphemism for getting fired).&lt;p&gt;What entrepreneurs and VCs need to realize is these bullying tactics (and I include the underhanded clawback agreements to Skype employees in this) undermine the entire ecosystem and we need to send a powerful message that they can&apos;t and won&apos;t be tolerated.&lt;p&gt;[1]: &lt;a href=&quot;http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2011-11-10/zynga-ipo-stock/51158068/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2011-11-10/zy...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2]: &lt;a href=&quot;http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/02/28/andrew-mason-groupoin/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/02/28/andrew-mason-groupo...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dj2stein9</author><text>I really don&apos;t feel sorry for anyone who work(s)(ed) for Zynga.  This company milked the whole &quot;social gaming&quot; bubble for every drop it was worth. Every game they made was a clone of this or that, and they used every spam trick in the book to get more clicks, and every single employee at that company knew 100% full well that they were part of a modern day ponzi scheme that would blow up once Facebook become uncool.</text></comment>
<story><title>Zynga to Lay Off 520 Employees and shutter NY and LA Offices</title><url>http://allthingsd.com/20130603/zynga-to-lay-off-520-employees-18-percent-of-staff-and-shutter-new-york-and-la-offices/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>cletus</author><text>I feel bad for those who put their blood, sweat and tears into building Zynga.&lt;p&gt;I feel bad for those who have just lost their jobs.&lt;p&gt;I feel bad for those who remain under a cloud with the only comment they get is self-deflecting language from their CEO like &quot;brothers and sisters&quot;.&lt;p&gt;Who I don&apos;t feel bad for is Mark Pincus. The collapse of Zynga couldn&apos;t happen to a more deserving person. Just 18 months ago when Zynga was on top of the world, Pincus made a name for himself by bullying staff to give back stock options [1] for no other reason than he thought they didn&apos;t deserve such a huge windfall.&lt;p&gt;Well those chickens have come home to roost. Those same employers will be the first to take flight having no further loyalty to the company.&lt;p&gt;I also know that I wouldn&apos;t work for Pincus. He&apos;s shown his true character with this petty greed (how much difference did this make to him personally really?).&lt;p&gt;Frankly I&apos;d hesitate in working for any company backed by the same VCs that let this happen. To allow this erosion of what I&apos;d call the &quot;startup bargain&quot; (trading salary for equity) by greatly reducing the upside is shortsighted and undermines the very conditions that makes the startup scene thrive and succeed.&lt;p&gt;As much as I viewed Groupon as a scam (a Ponzi scheme essentially), Andrew Mason&apos;s parting words [2] after getting fired gained him a lot of respect (from me at least) as they were authentic and didn&apos;t seek to cast blame elsewhere. In fact he went so far as to make a joke of &quot;spending more time with my family&quot; (which we all know is a euphemism for getting fired).&lt;p&gt;What entrepreneurs and VCs need to realize is these bullying tactics (and I include the underhanded clawback agreements to Skype employees in this) undermine the entire ecosystem and we need to send a powerful message that they can&apos;t and won&apos;t be tolerated.&lt;p&gt;[1]: &lt;a href=&quot;http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2011-11-10/zynga-ipo-stock/51158068/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2011-11-10/zy...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2]: &lt;a href=&quot;http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/02/28/andrew-mason-groupoin/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/02/28/andrew-mason-groupo...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tsotha</author><text>&amp;#62;Who I don&apos;t feel bad for is Mark Pincus. The collapse of Zynga couldn&apos;t happen to a more deserving person. Just 18 months ago when Zynga was on top of the world, Pincus made a name for himself by bullying staff to give back stock options [1] for no other reason than he thought they didn&apos;t deserve such a huge windfall.&lt;p&gt;That was my first thought.  Couldn&apos;t happen to a nicer guy.</text></comment>