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Zynga Shuts Down OMGPOP One Year After Acquiring It For $200M

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Re: Zynga Shuts Down OMGPOP One Year After Acquiring It For $200M

#71

Post by unoti »

abraininavat wrote: post #59
Ixiaus wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There isn't anything to "take back" - other than Government sponsored monopolies or price ceilings/floors, the market is OPEN to you! There are many competent people building amazing companies, incompetent people getting paid well, competent people getting paid badly, competent people making lots of money and being fair with their employees. This (corporate) world is less black and white than you're making it out to…

One could argue that the system is currently set up to benefit executives (who often end up winning, regardless of whether the company loses) at the expense of shareholders and/or the general public. One could argue that this is a problem that market forces can't fix, and therefore that a regulatory solution is called for. One might refer to this sort of regulation as "taking back" the unfair advantages the executive…

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 to ride the gravy train?

There's truth in what you say about the system rewarding the lazy. But that's fundamentally because of the stupidity and laziness of the shareholders. There's still opportunity in this turbulent system though to pick winners, and be a shareholder that rewards competence and punishes incompetence.

Re: Zynga Shuts Down OMGPOP One Year After Acquiring It For $200M

#72

Post by veritas20 »

Does anyone know the specific tax implications of a write-down of a bad acquisition? In this case and in HP's case it's truly hard to believe that the assets acquired are that severely depressed and I would like to know how this affects taxpayers via reduced taxed obligations of the acquirer.

Re: Zynga Shuts Down OMGPOP One Year After Acquiring It For $200M

#74

Post by untog »

pavs wrote: post #12

I want to know what kind of thought process goes on company/individual's mind when they decide to do an acquisition like this, for $200M, which doesn't make enough money to justify it. You would think when you are throwing around that kind of money, they would do some rudimentary research? How much money was omgpop making at the time of the acquisition?

How much money was omgpop making at the time of the acquisition?

That's probably an overly simplistic way of looking at it. OMGPOP had very little money in the bank but had just gotten a runaway hit with Draw Something. So they were a prime target to take over

Re: Zynga Shuts Down OMGPOP One Year After Acquiring It For $200M

#75

Post by Ixiaus »

abraininavat wrote: post #59
Ixiaus wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There isn't anything to "take back" - other than Government sponsored monopolies or price ceilings/floors, the market is OPEN to you! There are many competent people building amazing companies, incompetent people getting paid well, competent people getting paid badly, competent people making lots of money and being fair with their employees. This (corporate) world is less black and white than you're making it out to…

One could argue that the system is currently set up to benefit executives (who often end up winning, regardless of whether the company loses) at the expense of shareholders and/or the general public. One could argue that this is a problem that market forces can't fix, and therefore that a regulatory solution is called for. One might refer to this sort of regulation as "taking back" the unfair advantages the executive…

Now why should it be any different? There are a few companies experimenting with different hierarchies, hierarchy-less, and different role/position value assignments (tied somewhat with hierarchy), but in general I think pitch-forking the "1%" is just the "herd entitlement".

If you're on the bottom and don't like it, then get on top; this day and age that is actually possible. In history prior, you had to be born into the right name or granted a monopoly by the empire or king in order be "financially independent" (or thieve). In the USA you just had to have a great idea and the persistence to get people to buy into your idea.

NOW all you need is an internet connection, some free software, time, and some free fucking education to build financial independence.

Re: Zynga Shuts Down OMGPOP One Year After Acquiring It For $200M

#76

Post by robterrell »

jerhinesmith wrote: post #7
pyre wrote: post #5

| "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…

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.

Indeed, I have "Zynga" on my linkedin profile and got roughly a dozen emails from recruiters last night.

Linkedin revenues probably had a nice bump in the past 24 hours.

Re: Zynga Shuts Down OMGPOP One Year After Acquiring It For $200M

#77

Post by untog »

blankenship wrote: post #45
socialist_coder wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not really. he lost out on severance.

...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.

Re: Zynga Shuts Down OMGPOP One Year After Acquiring It For $200M

#78

Post by gte910h »

pyre wrote: post #5

| "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 have been approached by this sort of situation before with a "Hey , if you ever change your mind, we have 3 places we could use you the next day. Call me if you ever change your mind about working for ".

It's all about working with a range of people who value your skillset, and having a skillset that's valuable to a lot of people in useful ways and not setting off alarm bells, and understanding truly what other companies do (so they know you know what you'd be getting into without a lengthy interview/whatever process).

Giving talks at conferences, user groups, and helping people randomly (small amounts) for free on places like mailing lists builds tremendous goodwill in this arena and demonstrates your mannerisms, knowledge, and community relationships to everyone observing it.

--

On the other side of it, I have a list of people if I know they sound unhappy in their jobs or got laid off or fired, I'd thrust them in front of 3-5 people in front of my network INSTANTLY as I know they're not the sort of people you get by any other means. The golden handcuff type employees.

Re: Zynga Shuts Down OMGPOP One Year After Acquiring It For $200M

#79

Post by [deleted] »

Ixiaus wrote: post #49
raheemm wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If failure of such magnitude cannot be criticized, then what should be?

Criticizing it is totally okay. What the OP said though was much more than "constructive analytical criticism" - there was a lot of emotion and ambiguous assumptions built into his statement that make very little sense.

[deleted]

Re: Zynga Shuts Down OMGPOP One Year After Acquiring It For $200M

#80

Post by cynicalkane »

Ixiaus wrote: post #46
ianstallings wrote: post #14

I 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.

There isn't anything to "take back" - other than Government sponsored monopolies or price ceilings/floors, the market is OPEN to you! There are many competent people building amazing companies, incompetent people getting paid well, competent people getting paid badly, competent people making lots of money and being fair with their employees. This (corporate) world is less black and white than you're making it out to…

It's worth pointing out that programmers are in demand and highly paid and there is nothing forcing anyone to work with "leeches". In addition to having people "flock to you" there's also the option of joining the flock. Most people would kill to have our market power.
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