Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) announced on Friday that it has named John Doerr, a renowned venture capitalist to its board as the Company looks to shift its focus away from social gaming business towards online gambling and mobile-platform focused games.
Earlier this week, Zynga Inc announced it has entered in partnership with U.K. based Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment to launch its real-money versions of its online poker and casino games, a first foray in online gambling business.
John Doerr, who serves as a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, is one of the most widely acclaimed names in the world of venture capital. Doerr has invested in companies such as Google, Sun Microsystems and Amazon.
“John has been a supporter of Zynga since our early days, and truly understands our core values and mission,” said Zynga Chief Executive Officer, Mark Pincus, in a statement.
“John has worked with some of the most well-known companies in the world at every stage imaginable and his experience helping teams innovate at scale will be a tremendous asset for our leadership team,” added Pincus.
Meanwhile, Zynga was sued by a shareholder on Friday. Wendy Lee, an ex-product manager at Zynga, said that top executive were allowed to sell shares before the lockup period which fetched them more than $200 million even as outside shareholders and lower-ranked employees were disallowed to sell shares, according to Bloomberg news.
Lee said that after Zynga made its IPO on Dec 16, 2011, practically all shareholders that included directors and all officers were barred from offloading shares for next 165 days.
However, the lockup period was “waived” for some of executive in March 2012, who sold in excess of 40 million shares in the secondary market, Lee contended in a Delaware Chancery Court on Friday, according to Bloomberg.
The lawsuit was filed against Zynga at a time when Company’s CEO and founder Mark Pincus slashed his salary in order to control costs.
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