It was not too long ago when Zynga shelled out $180 million to acquire OMGPOP, the studio behind the hugely popular mobile game at the time: Draw Something. Fast forward to today and Zynga may have realized that its has committed as $180-million mistake.
After writing off up to $95 million from OMGPOP last October, it now seems like the company behind the iconic Facebook games ending in “Ville” may have shut down OMGPOP studio, along with other units, in an attempt to save $80 more.
Reports of massive streamlining comes as Zynga lays off 520 employees (18 percent of its global workforce), as well as shutting down its offices in Dallas, Los Angeles, and New York. And apparently, Zynga’s New York unit is OMGPOP itself.
Even OMGPOP’s official Twitter account, as well as some of its employees, have been tweeting about their last day at the Zynga office. OMGPOP’s ex-CEO and Zynga’s former Vice President of Mobile Dan Porter, who created Draw Something, left the company last month after having to defend (or backtrack) his previous statement about Zynga launching its own games by copying from other companies.
It remains to be seen how Zynga and its games will fare in the coming months, as the company recently launched Draw Something 2 among other titles.
The Verge Mobile
