Congratulations to OMGPOP for pulling this Hudini act off :)
Cha-chin!
Zynga Shuts Down OMGPOP One Year After Acquiring It For $200M
131–140 of 207 posts
Re: Zynga Shuts Down OMGPOP One Year After Acquiring It For $200M
#132[deleted]
Re: Zynga Shuts Down OMGPOP One Year After Acquiring It For $200M
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
Especially at a company like Zynga, that at least as far as I know, had a fairly rigorous interview process. It's a chance to get a pre-screened engineer, possibly on the cheap.
understandably a company would want to pay less for higher quality work, but at the same time if the process was rigorous and assuming many tech recruiters are also trying to poach the employees - i would think 'on the cheap' wouldn't really apply given supply/demand here
I agree with you as long as the candidate is sufficiently competent at negotiating. Unfortunately, a large number of developers are not.
Re: Zynga Shuts Down OMGPOP One Year After Acquiring It For $200M
#134| "but most of my team had new jobs lined up | by the time they left the building anyway." I've never experienced this. Does this mean that they were already looking, or that they were able to immediately call someone up and get a job offer on-demand? Edit: To be clear, having 'a job lined up' to me means that they already at least have an offer, rather than just a bunch of emails from recruiters and/or people lookin…
I'm guessing it's a little exaggerated... I live in the Denver/Boulder area, and I'm 90% confident that if I were laid off today I could have an approximately equal job in less than 3 months. I wouldn't say I have a new job lined up, but somebody could spin it that way. Also, I'd imagine people from a well known company like OMGPOP, in a big tech hub like SF or NYC, would have an easier time finding something new.
I used to live in Denver, and today I live in San Francisco. I can tell you, this story is not an exaggeration. When I was in Denver I did PL/SQL and C# types of things. Today I do Python and Javascript and basically standard technology things. I can tell you, there's a vast difference in Denver vs San Franscisco. You drive down the streets of San Francisco and you see signs saying, "Developers! We freakin love you, come work for us!" You ride the subway, and there are signs for game companies hiring developers. Really: it's not like Denver, honest.
Re: Zynga Shuts Down OMGPOP One Year After Acquiring It For $200M
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
...but would’ve worked at Zynga for more than a year to get three months of severance.
Shrug, it's not like he wouldn't get paid for it. I have no idea just how miserable it would have been working at Zynga, but working for a year in order to get three month's of severance doesn't sound too awful to me.
I worked at Zynga for a year + some months. It's actually a good place to work. You learn a ton about social / viral games and monetization, make really good contacts, get paid at or above market salary, eat really good food, and get all the other startup perks. And, you're still doing game development so it's not like your skills don't transfer.
I don't regret working there at all. I just wish the stock hadn't of tanked and the game I was working on hadn't of been a failure =P
Re: Zynga Shuts Down OMGPOP One Year After Acquiring It For $200M
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
Shame on the shareholders, then, for letting that happen. In the case of Zynga, why did they buy stock? Was it because Zynga was an amazing company with brilliant technology, a solid executive team focusing on long term fundamentals and sustainable business practices? Or did most of them invest because the stock price was going up and the business had buzzwords like "social", and so they jumped in like sheep to try t…
But that's fundamentally because of the stupidity and laziness of the shareholders. It's kinda cute that you believe that, and are prepared to go to any length to blame immoral behavior on anyone you can find other than the people engaging in the behavior. Also, beyond the initial purchase of the stock -- which may be well before any signs of trouble -- shareholders can easily be made to have zero power; even the pow…
If you couldn't see Zynga was poison long ago, even when it was on its meteoric rise, then you seriously were not paying attention.
Re: Zynga Shuts Down OMGPOP One Year After Acquiring It For $200M
#137I bet all the execs got well paid for their terrible efforts though and they will slide into new positions of power regardless of their merit. We need to take our industry back from the leeches. The near-sighted execs with nothing but paper accolades and networks of cronies.
Start your own company then and set an example instead of criticizing others. Edit: Thanks for all the upvotes/support. To those who see this as legitimate criticism, really? The OP elaborated on nothing - no constructive criticisms were made. Instead, it just sounds like pure anger and naïveté on my end, alluding to all entrepreneurs trying to make it/who have made it as "leeches" and "near-sighted execs" that have…
Ex-Zynga here, and that's exactly what I've done. We're prioritizing profit sharing over equity, so as the company does really well (as Zynga did in the years prior to their IPO), all employees who contribute will be making a lot of money, not just the founders.
Re: Zynga Shuts Down OMGPOP One Year After Acquiring It For $200M
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
Since you brought it up, which companies are those? Otherwise It just seems like you are making it up to make yourself look better. By the way, I've also made iOs apps that barely get any ratings.
BKRGB which was a signage platform I built last year with a partner and sold and ShaiSoft, which sold networking library software that I sold in 2002. I'm not rich because of it but I have tried and succeeded. It's interesting how you belittle me because my numbers aren't big enough on the Brabble app. If I had bigger numbers could I criticize then?
>>It's interesting how you belittle me because my numbers aren't big enough on the Brabble app.
Sorry about that. It was uncalled for. Honestly I thought you were just making stuff up. You've certainly done more than most.
Re: Zynga Shuts Down OMGPOP One Year After Acquiring It For $200M
#139Lots of drama about this! I guess that goes along with being high profile.
Re: Zynga Shuts Down OMGPOP One Year After Acquiring It For $200M
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
If it's anything like San Francisco, once word spreads that a gaming company is shuttering, there's pretty much a "land grab" from the other local companies for talent.
Every time one of these things happens, I actively see (employed) game-dev buddies on Facebook publicly advertising jobs at their present companies to their newly laid-off friends. Game developers are still a pretty tight-knit group. It's not like getting laid off from a Wal-Mart.
There are a zillion people trying to get into games. This actually makes it hard to find those who have actually made games. So when a (relatively) known quantity becomes available, there are immediate opportunities.