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Eagerly looking forward to the explanation for this weird juxtaposition. http://i.imgur.com/huUv09m.png http://i.imgur.com/huUv09m.png

by h2s 13y ago

notwedtm 13y ago
This is the first thing I saw today upon opening HN. Seriously, how does this make sense?
- WilliamCClegg 13y ago
  clockworkelf, a friendly heads up, you've been shadowbanned. It makes me sad to see people taking the time to post comments and not realizing they all instantly vanish.
- sharkweek 13y ago
  Because it's massively beneficial from a PR perspective to lay people off the same day you're doing something "positive." Specifically here, it has certainly diverted a lot of attention that would otherwise be on a negative like laying people off into something that looks far more positive for the company. Last time Zynga laid off a large % of their workforce, wasn't it during a huge conference or the same day Apple had made an announcement about new products or something? That's another great way to minimize attention toward something like this.
  - mullingitover 13y ago
    I don't see how this comes out as a positive for Zynga. They're basically saying, hey, we weren't able to leverage our existing staff's talent, maybe if we bring in new talent our pattern of failure to efficiently manage our intellectual capital will somehow fix itself. If I worked at NaturalMotion I'd be polishing my resume right now.
    - MartinCron 13y ago
      If I worked at NaturalMotion I'd be polishing my resume right now That would be good advice even without the same-day layoffs.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- Ygg2 13y ago
  Basically all of their previous staff was hired by chimps, so they had to fire them. Fire staff that is, not the chimps. The chimps ordered a new batch. Perfect moon logic.
clockworkelf 13y ago
I think what has happened is that, in this technocratic age, corporations act like living entities. It's like a complex organism that acquires and drops resources in order to serve it's own survival and consumption goals. As corporations increasingly become deeper and deeper wells of energy(i.e. money, human resources) this juxtaposition will become more and more glaring. This is a result of the marriage of corporation and state.
ChuckMcM 13y ago
Its not that weird. They had 200M in revenue last quarter[1] with about 2000 employees. That is about $100K/employee, since employees probably cost more than that at the median, its not really a sustainable strategy. Swap out employees who are making more $/employee to boost the average and maybe you have a going concern. [1] http://investor.zynga.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=800274 http://investor.zynga.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=800274
- qdog 13y ago
  If the average person there makes 100k per QUARTER I can see how they'd be losing a lot of money. Either you mixed quarters and years, or I'm in the wrong type of business.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
- meritt 13y ago
  That's $100k revenue per employee in Q3 but employee expense is much lower than that[1]. Probably a median annual salary+bonuses of $100k + 15% in taxes & benefits, we're still looking at maybe $30k/employee/quarter. [1] http://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Zynga-Salaries-E243552.htm http://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Zynga-Salaries-E243552.htm
  - aortega 13y ago
    Wait....only 15% in taxes & benefits? where is Zynga located, Cayman islands?
    - sureshv 13y ago
      Payroll taxes (7.5%) plus benefits - not personal income tax which is deducted from the employee's paycheck.
_random_ 13y ago
It's a new radical management concept: you start replacing pieces of your failing company with other smaller but more successful companies. Start at the bottom, finish at the top. In two years after a series of lay-offs and acqui-hires the whole staff will be replaced finishing with CEO with a proper replacement hired from Rovio's board.
panabee 13y ago
trimming fat while investing in innovation is not mutually exclusive, esp if you have a sizable cash cushion and a new CEO like zynga. on the surface, it seems unfair to compare this acquisition with omgpop since naturalmotion offers defensible IP and technology that can be used in helping zynga's games appear more lifelike, or like lucas technologies, help others make their creations, whether games or movies, appear more lifelike. more realistic animations and game play will become more common as mobile phones become more powerful, much as we saw with gaming consoles. this is a bold investment in the future of mobile (and potentially smart TV) entertainment.
- Ygg2 13y ago
  Innovation? Zynga? What exactly did they innovate, other than employee performance tracking software?
  - panabee 13y ago
    this acquisition is zynga investing in innovation.
    - Ygg2 13y ago
      I see. Corp speak - By aggressively optimizing our resource acquisition, we invest in solution innovation inflammation conflagration immolation.
      - bronbron 13y ago
        It's not at all corp speak... are you serious? It's the same idea behind Facebook trying to buy Snapchat. Facebook realizes another team is much more innovative & successful than them in attracting young users, so they try and spend money to acquire that talent and invest in that team's innovative ability (pay $3B now to realize >$3B revenue in the future).
        product50 13y ago
munificent 13y ago
Looks like Mattrick brought his well-tread "why retrain when you can swap out people" practices with him from EA. > On November 9, 2009, EA announced its acquisition of social casual games developer Playfish for US$275 million. On the same day, the company announced layoffs of 1500 employees, representing 17% of its workforce, across a number of studios including EA Tiburon, Visceral Games, Mythic and EA Black Box. I was at Tiburon when that happened. Not a fun day. :(
- acjohnson55 13y ago
  Tiburon made one of my favorite games: Madden 64!
prostoalex 13y ago
From what I've read, Zynga is not run as a monolithic company, but as a confederation of studios that do not necessarily share programming, design and product management talent, but share HR, legal, and administrative. Thus when some project reaches end of life, it's time for the entire studio to go.
- jlees 13y ago
  Many game companies work like this.

Eagerly looking forward to the explanation for this weird juxtaposition. http://i.imgur.com/huUv09m.png http://i.imgur.com/huUv09m.png

by h2s 13y ago

Eagerly looking forward to the explanation for this weird juxtaposition. http://i.imgur.com/huUv09m.png http://i.imgur.com/huUv09m.png

notwedtm 13y ago

This is the first thing I saw today upon opening HN. Seriously, how does this make sense?

WilliamCClegg 13y ago
clockworkelf, a friendly heads up, you've been shadowbanned. It makes me sad to see people taking the time to post comments and not realizing they all instantly vanish.
sharkweek 13y ago
Because it's massively beneficial from a PR perspective to lay people off the same day you're doing something "positive." Specifically here, it has certainly diverted a lot of attention that would otherwise be on a negative like laying people off into something that looks far more positive for the company. Last time Zynga laid off a large % of their workforce, wasn't it during a huge conference or the same day Apple had made an announcement about new products or something? That's another great way to minimize attention toward something like this.
- mullingitover 13y ago
  I don't see how this comes out as a positive for Zynga. They're basically saying, hey, we weren't able to leverage our existing staff's talent, maybe if we bring in new talent our pattern of failure to efficiently manage our intellectual capital will somehow fix itself. If I worked at NaturalMotion I'd be polishing my resume right now.
  - MartinCron 13y ago
    If I worked at NaturalMotion I'd be polishing my resume right now That would be good advice even without the same-day layoffs.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
Ygg2 13y ago
Basically all of their previous staff was hired by chimps, so they had to fire them. Fire staff that is, not the chimps. The chimps ordered a new batch. Perfect moon logic.

clockworkelf 13y ago

I think what has happened is that, in this technocratic age, corporations act like living entities. It's like a complex organism that acquires and drops resources in order to serve it's own survival and consumption goals. As corporations increasingly become deeper and deeper wells of energy(i.e. money, human resources) this juxtaposition will become more and more glaring. This is a result of the marriage of corporation and state.

ChuckMcM 13y ago

Its not that weird. They had 200M in revenue last quarter[1] with about 2000 employees. That is about $100K/employee, since employees probably cost more than that at the median, its not really a sustainable strategy. Swap out employees who are making more $/employee to boost the average and maybe you have a going concern. [1] http://investor.zynga.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=800274 http://investor.zynga.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=800274

qdog 13y ago
If the average person there makes 100k per QUARTER I can see how they'd be losing a lot of money. Either you mixed quarters and years, or I'm in the wrong type of business.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
meritt 13y ago
That's $100k revenue per employee in Q3 but employee expense is much lower than that[1]. Probably a median annual salary+bonuses of $100k + 15% in taxes & benefits, we're still looking at maybe $30k/employee/quarter. [1] http://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Zynga-Salaries-E243552.htm http://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Zynga-Salaries-E243552.htm
- aortega 13y ago
  Wait....only 15% in taxes & benefits? where is Zynga located, Cayman islands?
  - sureshv 13y ago
    Payroll taxes (7.5%) plus benefits - not personal income tax which is deducted from the employee's paycheck.

_random_ 13y ago

It's a new radical management concept: you start replacing pieces of your failing company with other smaller but more successful companies. Start at the bottom, finish at the top. In two years after a series of lay-offs and acqui-hires the whole staff will be replaced finishing with CEO with a proper replacement hired from Rovio's board.

panabee 13y ago

trimming fat while investing in innovation is not mutually exclusive, esp if you have a sizable cash cushion and a new CEO like zynga. on the surface, it seems unfair to compare this acquisition with omgpop since naturalmotion offers defensible IP and technology that can be used in helping zynga's games appear more lifelike, or like lucas technologies, help others make their creations, whether games or movies, appear more lifelike. more realistic animations and game play will become more common as mobile phones become more powerful, much as we saw with gaming consoles. this is a bold investment in the future of mobile (and potentially smart TV) entertainment.

Ygg2 13y ago
Innovation? Zynga? What exactly did they innovate, other than employee performance tracking software?
- panabee 13y ago
  this acquisition is zynga investing in innovation.
  - Ygg2 13y ago
    I see. Corp speak - By aggressively optimizing our resource acquisition, we invest in solution innovation inflammation conflagration immolation.
    - bronbron 13y ago
      It's not at all corp speak... are you serious? It's the same idea behind Facebook trying to buy Snapchat. Facebook realizes another team is much more innovative & successful than them in attracting young users, so they try and spend money to acquire that talent and invest in that team's innovative ability (pay $3B now to realize >$3B revenue in the future).
      - product50 13y ago

munificent 13y ago

Looks like Mattrick brought his well-tread "why retrain when you can swap out people" practices with him from EA. > On November 9, 2009, EA announced its acquisition of social casual games developer Playfish for US$275 million. On the same day, the company announced layoffs of 1500 employees, representing 17% of its workforce, across a number of studios including EA Tiburon, Visceral Games, Mythic and EA Black Box. I was at Tiburon when that happened. Not a fun day. :(

acjohnson55 13y ago
Tiburon made one of my favorite games: Madden 64!

prostoalex 13y ago

From what I've read, Zynga is not run as a monolithic company, but as a confederation of studios that do not necessarily share programming, design and product management talent, but share HR, legal, and administrative. Thus when some project reaches end of life, it's time for the entire studio to go.

jlees 13y ago
Many game companies work like this.