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"Zynga Chief Executive Officer Don Mattrick is putting his stamp on the company, seeking to reduce layers of management in a push to turn around the struggling developer of social games.Chief Operations Officer David Ko, Chief People Officer Colleen McCreary and Chief Technology Officer Cadir Lee are leaving amid an executive shuffle, Mattrick said in an email to staff Tuesday.\nThe exits follow last month\u2019s appointment of Mattrick, a former Microsoft executive who replaced founder Mark Pincus and is seeking to reverse a 71% share slide since the company went public in December 2011. The new CEO is working to revive growth and reinvigorate Zynga\u2019s efforts in mobile games. The company expects two to four quarters of \u201Cvolatility\u201D as Mattrick evaluates the business and products while developing a new strategy, he said on a conference call last month.\n\u201CWe are taking layers out of the executive rank to get senior leaders closer to important product initiatives,\u201D Mattrick wrote in Tuesday's email.Through yesterday, Zynga had dropped 17% since announcing on July 25 that it\u2019s abandoning plans to enter the online-gambling business in the U.S. The company also forecast third-quarter sales and earnings that fell short of analysts\u2019 estimates as fewer users play games on Facebook's website. Zynga fell less than 1% to $2.90 at 9:38 a.m. in New York.\n\u2018Better Games\u2019\n\u201CThis is a CEO who has the authority to shake things up, and reducing the executive ranks also suggests there may be further downsizing,\u201D said Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Robert W. Baird &amp; Co. \u201CZynga won\u2019t be truly right-sized until they demonstrate improving product performance, so let\u2019s hope these changes result in better games.\u201D\nKing.com, developer of Candy Crush Saga, reached 150.4 million monthly users on Facebook in June, surpassing Zynga, according to online tracker AppData, ending Zynga\u2019s five-year reign as the top game maker on the social-networking service.\nKo, who spent a decade at Yahoo before joining Zynga, was promoted to COO last November following a previous reorganization led by Pincus.\nImage: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/08/14/zynga-coo-out/>