Dysfunctional Couple Update: Facebook and Zynga
Zynga and Facebook play out their drama in public, much to the detriment of investors who can’t leave the party early before glasses start breaking.
Posts
Zynga And Facebook: A Dangerously Close Relationship
/in Food for Thought, Pure ContentZynga is practically a wholly owned subsidiary of Facebook. At some point I think it will be, probably to actualize an online real-money gaming strategy.
First Forbes Magazine Feature
/8 Comments/in Food for ThoughtMy first feature article for Forbes magazine is out on the newsstands today.
Party Like A VC: It’s Not As Easy As It Looks
/6 Comments/in Food for ThoughtStartups, especially on the West Coast, are usually full of folks who’ve been involved in more than one. Sometimes that’s due to success – the company is acquired – and sometimes that’s because of failure. Startup junkies are always moving. The Zynga management team includes several alumni, including their CEO and CFO, of SupportSoft.
SupportSoft’s founder who is the current Zynga CEO, and Zynga’s CFO, have been out of SupportSoft for a while. Within five minutes I knew why. SupportSoft settled a class action law suit in 2007 for $10.7 million that alleged its then-CEO and CFO, Radha Basu and Brian Beattie, violated federal securities laws. They were accused of making false and misleading statements about the reasons for record revenues, resulting in the artificial inflation of the company’s stock price.