Zynga laying off 520 staff, shuttering multiple offices

Zynga is closing the doors of its Los Angeles, New York and Dallas offices, with 520 employees facing layoffs -- 18 percent of its total workforce. These cuts are part of Zynga's efforts to consolidate and refocus on mobile. The layoffs follow only two months after Zynga was reported doubling the salary of its top executives. Tweets from employees are already beginning to surface confirming the layoffs and studio closures. Meanwhile, Zynga founder and CEO Mark Pincus's letter to employees regarding the studio restructuring has appeared on Zynga's corporate blog. It reads in part:

A press release from Zynga said the layoffs will be "substantially complete" by August this year. The company also downgraded its financial guidance for the fiscal quarter ending in June. Zynga is now projecting quarterly net losses of between $39 million and $28.5 million, down from previous guidance of net losses between $36.5 million to $26.5 million. Zynga also said today that it expects quarterly bookings to be in the lower half of its guidance, which stands at $180 million to $190 million. "Bookings" is a specific metric that Zynga uses to measure sales of virtual goods and advertising. Gamasutra has reached out to Zynga for additional comment. If you are a Zynga employee who has been affected by these layoffs, please get in touch with us at [email protected]. All confidentiality will be upheld. Update: It would appear that Zynga has closed Draw Something studio OMGPOP -- the company that it acquired for $180 million just over a year ago. Former OMGPOP VP Ali Nicolas tweeted about the closure, while the official OMGPOP Twitter noted that "This is the last day at Zynga for many Omgpop staff."