top | item 4638568

(no title)

bigohms | 13 years ago

I have held Zynga throughout the year. The extent of leadership fail here is unprecedented. n number of remediation tactics should have taken hold early to prevent where we are now. Here is a copy of my e-mail to Pincus (still gone unanswered):

"Mark -

Can we have a man-to-man? Seriously, please explain to me, a small shareholder in Zynga, exactly what the fuck you have been doing with my investment? Clearly, the answer is not building value in any meaningful way. Any third year entrepreneur will have trouble seeing your performance this year amounting to anything other than a collected check, a leveraged office, a leased plane ($3K a wet flight hour?!? What is that a fucking citation X?!?) and an overpaid security team. If the plan is to ride this thing to the nines, let me know so that I can pull out and forget any thoughts of a really well integrated ecosystem of gaming.

BTW: If you see the OMGPOP/Draw Something team, tell them to get the fuck off of their asses (if they're still around) and do something about long-tail gamification model if they want to do something about user retention.

That's all, k thx bye drops mic."

discuss

order

moot|13 years ago

This reads like most of the e-mail I get, and I don't even run a publicly traded company!

thaumaturgy|13 years ago

Hah. I'm sure that's got nothing to do with what you're most famous for.

AgentConundrum|13 years ago

I don't even want to know what most of your email looks like, although I can't say I'm not at least a little curious.

sliverstorm|13 years ago

(still gone unanswered)

I hope you are not actually surprised. You've read the email you wrote, right? I know I wouldn't have bothered to answer an email like that.

unoti|13 years ago

At least this letter gives some insight into why there's a highly paid security team.

thaumaturgy|13 years ago

Your "investment" doesn't obligate Mark Pincus into answering a stupid email. You gave them money entirely out of self-interest -- a gamble that you would somehow get more money back -- and they spent it. There are all of the answers you deserve.

nerfhammer|13 years ago

The directors do have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders. It's reasonable for an investor to expect directors not to waste money.

His investment did not go to zynga, it went to whatever market seller he bought it from. He is more accurately a shareholder - a part owner - rather than an investor.

It is difficult to imagine this email getting a response though.

r00fus|13 years ago

Assuming the investment was bought on the open market, Zynga probably didn't see a penny of it (though it might have helped to raise or stabilize the stock price in a miniscule way).

So Pincus doesn't have any reason to even read your email, much less respond.

supersaiyan|13 years ago

I think you should go back to playing call of duty