Zynga Announces Executive Appointments

Reaffirms 2012 Financial Outlook


SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 13, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zynga Inc. (Nasdaq:ZNGA), the world's leading provider of social game services, today announced a number of changes to the company's executive team. Among these changes, Mark Vranesh, chief accounting officer, has been appointed chief financial officer. Mr. Vranesh succeeded David Wehner, who is leaving the company today to pursue a senior finance position at Facebook, Inc.

The company also announced that David Ko, previously chief mobile officer, has been appointed chief operations officer; Barry Cottle, previously executive vice president, business and corporate development, has been appointed chief revenue officer; and Steven Chiang, previously executive vice president of games, has been appointed president of games.

"Dave remains a good friend to us all and we wish him success in his next role," said Mark Pincus, founder and CEO of Zynga. "Mark, David, Barry and Steve are rooted in our culture, committed to our future and part of the talented bench of leadership at Zynga. I'm confident we have the right team to deliver on our mission of connecting the world through games and position us for long-term growth."

"I have greatly enjoyed working closely with Mark Pincus and the rest of the team," said Dave Wehner. "The time I spent at Zynga has been an exciting chapter in my career as we led the rapid development of social gaming. Mark Vranesh and I have been close partners during my tenure at Zynga and I wish my colleagues well as the company continues to deliver on its vision."

Mr. Vranesh previously served as the CFO of Zynga from May 2008 until August 2010. Since August 2010, he has served as the company's chief accounting officer. Before joining Zynga, Mr. Vranesh served as the vice president of finance and administration and corporate controller of Fortinet, Inc. (Nasdaq:FTNT), a computer and network security company. Prior to that position, he held finance roles of increasing responsibility, including vice president of finance, at Support.com, Inc., an online technology support company.

In his new position as chief operations officer, Mr. Ko will oversee strategy planning, international, infrastructure and operations of the company. Since joining the company in 2010, Mr. Ko scaled Zynga's mobile organization, grew the company's portfolio by 25 new games and helped unite game development teams on cross platform efforts. Prior to joining Zynga, Mr. Ko was senior vice president of Yahoo!'s (Nasdaq:YHOO) audience, mobile and local businesses and also served as vice president for Yahoo!ʼs mobile business in Asia Pacific.

Mr. Cottle is being named chief revenue officer and will be responsible for corporate and business development, distribution, strategic partnerships, advertising sales and operations, publishing and real money gaming. Before joining Zynga, Mr. Cottle was executive vice president of EA Interactive (Nasdaq:EA), where he was responsible for digital gaming properties including mobile, social and casual online games. Previously, he held executive roles at The Walt Disney Company, Quickoffice Inc. and Palm Computing Inc.

Mr. Chiang is being named president of games where he will oversee all games and new IP development across web and mobile.  Mr. Chiang has nearly 20 years of gaming experience and at Zynga has overseen the building and scaling of teams around game development and studio operations.  Before joining Zynga, he was senior vice president and group general manager for EA Sports at Electronic Arts.  During his tenure at Electronic Arts, Mr. Chiang oversaw Madden NFL and helped develop NCAA Football, FIFA Soccer, NBA LIVE and NHL.

Zynga also today reaffirmed its 2012 financial outlook set forth in its press release issued on October 24, 2012 relating to its third quarter 2012 financial results.

About Zynga Inc.

Zynga Inc. is the world's leading provider of social game services with approximately 311 million monthly active users playing its games, which include Bubble Safari, ChefVille, CityVille, Draw Something, FarmVille2, Gems With Friends, Ruby Blast, Scramble With Friends, Words With Friends, and Zynga Poker. Zynga's games are available on a number of global platforms, including Facebook, Zynga.com, Google+, Tencent, Apple iOS and Google Android. Zynga is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

The Zynga Inc. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=11743

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains, or incorporates by reference, forward-looking statements relating to, among other things, our outlook for full year 2012 bookings, adjusted EBITDA, stock-based expense, capital expenditures, effective tax rate, non-GAAP weighted average diluted shares and non-GAAP EPS; our efforts to position the company for long-term growth; and our future operational plans. Forward-looking statements often include words such as "outlook," "projected," "intends," "will," "anticipate," "believe," "expect," and statements in the future tense are generally forward-looking statements. The achievement or success of the matters covered by such forward-looking statements involves risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Our actual results could differ materially from those predicted or implied, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of our future performance. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, our relationship with Facebook or changes in the Facebook platform or to our agreements with Facebook, our ability to launch new games in a timely manner and monetize these games effectively, our ability to control and reduce expenses, our ability to anticipate and address technical challenges that may arise, competition, the changing interests of players, intellectual property disputes or other litigation, asset impairment charges, our ability to retain key employees, acquisitions by us and changes in our corporate strategy or management.



            

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