Justin Waldron is an American internet entrepreneur known as the co-founder of Zynga , a mobile social gaming company, and Zynga.org , a non-profit organization to promote and facilitate the use of social games for philanthropic initiatives. In 2020 Waldron co-founded Playco , a mobile instant game company backed by Sequoia Capital , where he currently serves as president.
28-586: OMGPop , stylized as OMGPOP and formerly known as i'minlikewithyou or iilwy , was an independent flash game studio. In 2013, it was purchased by Zynga Inc. OMGPop was based in SoHo , in New York City . The company received seed funding from Y Combinator during its early days as a startup . The website was listed on Time magazine's 50 Best Websites of 2009. On 21 March 2012, Zynga announced that it would acquire OMGPop for $ 180 million, saying "It
56-473: A five-year relationship to expand the use of Facebook Credits in Zynga's games. In December 2010, Zynga's game CityVille surpassed FarmVille as its most popular game with over 61 million monthly active users and a base of over 16 million daily active users. Zynga filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise up to $ 1 billion in an initial public offering on July 1, 2011. At
84-486: A value of $ 12.7 billion, with Take-Two acquiring all outstanding shares of Zynga at $ 9.86 apiece Both shareholders of the companies approved the merger on May 19, 2022, and the closing of the transaction took effect on May 23, 2022. In June 2023, during the FTC v. Microsoft trial cross-examination, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer disclosed that Microsoft considered purchasing Zynga before Take-Two Interactive acquired
112-659: A website to programmatically create unlimited free sandwich coupon codes for visitors. The website grew quickly in popularity resulting in a cease and desist notice from Burger King . In 2007, Justin dropped out of The University of Connecticut and co-founded Zynga at 19 years old. He created Zynga 's first title, Zynga Poker in 2007. In 2008, Waldron led the game studio behind YoVille and later led product strategy across Zynga's studios. Waldron also worked on special projects with Zynga 's other founders. He lived in Tokyo during Zynga's expansion to Japan. Waldron served as
140-560: Is active in the Web3 and broader blockchain ecosystem. In 2017, Waldron invested in the first blockchain focused hedge fund, Polychain Capital . In 2018, Waldron became an advisor to Dapper Labs , the creators of CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shot. Waldron also advises Immutable X , the first gas-free NFT platform on Ethereum . Waldron has advised Decentraland since 2018. Waldron has made early-stage investments, advised, or served on
168-842: Is an American video game developer and publisher known for its social video game services. It was founded in April 2007, with headquarters in San Mateo, California . The company primarily focuses on mobile and social networking platforms. Zynga states its mission as "connecting the world through games". Zynga launched FarmVille on Facebook in June 2009, reaching ten million daily active users (DAU) within six weeks. As of August 2017, Zynga had thirty million monthly active users (MAU). In 2017, its most successful games were Zynga Poker and Words with Friends 2 , with about 57 million games being played at any given moment; and CSR Racing 2 ,
196-477: Is considered to be the pioneer of the social games industry. In 2011, Zynga held a $ 1 billion IPO and as of 2021 is the largest mobile gaming company by market share. Waldron is an angel investor in more than 50 technology companies and was named as one of the top 100 seed investors by Business Insider in 2021. Zynga's most popular games include: FarmVille , CityVille , Zynga Poker , Mafia Wars , Words with Friends , and CSR Racing 2 . Waldron
224-510: Is our mission to provide consumers with fun, free games. We believe OMGPop will help us fulfill our promise." Mark Pincus , CEO of Zynga, announced in an official blog post on 3 June 2013 that the company would be laying off 18% of its employees in order to restructure the company and cut back on finances. Many former OMGPop employees were laid off, and the New York office was one of the three that Zynga shut down. While this had been reported as
252-407: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Zynga was priced at $ 10 per share and began trading on NASDAQ under ZNGA on December 16, 2011. The stock closed down 5% on its first day, then climbed 26% to $ 13.39 per share after Facebook's IPO filing on February 1, 2012 (Facebook had reported that 12% of its revenue comes from Zynga). In March 2012 ZNGA was trading at $ 14.50. For several years
280-487: The SVP of Product at Zynga until 2013. In 2020, it was announced that Waldron had co-founded Playco , which has received over $ 100 million in funding from Sequoia Capital and others. Playco is creating games that can be played instantly with friends without app downloads. The company's games are available within popular social applications such as Facebook , LINE , Snapchat , Viber , TikTok , Zoom and others. Waldron
308-676: The UK, including the release of online poker, a suite of 180 casino games, and the first online FarmVille -branded real money slots game during 2013. On June 3, 2013, Zynga announced layoffs of 520 employees — roughly 18% of its workforce — and closed offices in New York , Los Angeles , and Dallas . By July 2013, Zynga had reportedly lost nearly half of its user base from the previous year. Consequently, investors decreased Zynga's valuation by $ 400 million. On July 25, 2013, Zynga said they would not be pursuing real money game production in
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#1732790638037336-513: The US. Following this announcement, shares dropped 13%. In July 2013, Zynga hired Microsoft 's Interactive Entertainment President Don Mattrick as its new CEO. Pincus remained as Zynga's chairman and chief product officer. In January 2014, the company announced the layoff of 314 workers, about 15% of its total workforce. In April 2014, founder & former CEO Pincus stepped down from his role as chief product officer. He remained as chairman of
364-586: The Zynga API, intended to help developers build social games. The company announced that three new partners were developing games for Zynga.com including 50 Cubes, Majesco Entertainment and Portalarium . The company unveiled the Zynga Partners for Mobile program to help increase Zynga's presence on mobile devices. In October 2012, Zynga announced a partnership with bwin.party , an international real-money gaming operator, to launch real-money gaming in
392-421: The best quarterly performance in five years. As of January 2018, Zynga had 1,681 employees, approximately 80 million monthly active users, and a market capitalization of $ 3.39 billion. According to the company, Zynga has had over one billion people play its games since its inception in 2007. On January 10, 2022, Take-Two Interactive announced its intention to acquire the company in a cash-and-stock deal with
420-509: The board of directors for companies such as Substack , Lambda School , Kik Messenger , Asia Innovations Group , Snappr , and over 50 others. In October 2009, Waldron and his co-founders started Zynga.org , which is "committed to transforming the world through virtual social goods." Zynga.org has since raised more than $ 20 million for more than 50 international nonprofits by occasionally selling virtual goods for charitable causes. On March 11, 2011, Zynga announced that 100 percent of
448-468: The board. First quarter results for 2014 showed that daily active user numbers fell from 53 million to 28 million year-over-year. In April 2014, the company announced its new hire of Alex Garden, co-founder of Relic Entertainment and former Microsoft Game Studios executive. In July 2014, Zynga signed a lease for office space in Maitland, Florida . Less than one year later, this Orlando-area office
476-537: The closure of OMGPop, the omgpop.com website remained active. However, in a statement issued by parent company Zynga in July 2013, it was announced that the site would close on 30 September 2013, with four games – Cupcake Corner , Gem Rush , Pool World Champ and Snoops – being phased out on 29 August 2013. Around 2013, Zynga suffered a large data breach exposing over 7 million email addresses and plain text passwords for OMGPop which were later leaked in 2019. The breach
504-651: The most monthly active users in April 2009, with 40 million people playing their games that month. Soon after, the company opened its first external game studio in Baltimore, Zynga East, led by Brian Reynolds . In June 2009, Zynga acquired MyMiniLife which built and launched FarmVille on Facebook. By August, Farmville was the first game on Facebook to reach 10 million daily active users. On November 23, 2009, FarmVille.com went live as Zynga's first stand-alone game. In February 2010, Farmville had over 80 million players, and on May 18, 2010, Facebook and Zynga entered into
532-677: The most popular racing game on mobile devices. Zynga began trading on NASDAQ on December 16, 2011, under the ticker ZNGA. Take-Two Interactive announced in January 2022 its intent to buy Zynga for $ 12.7 billion . The deal was completed in May 2022. According to Take-Two Interactive, about 10% of the world's population plays Zynga's games every month. Zynga was founded in April 2007 by Mark Pincus , Eric Schiermeyer , Justin Waldron , Michael Luxton, Steve Schoettler, and Andrew Trader under
560-472: The name Presidio Media. The company name changed to Zynga in July 2007. Zynga was named after Pincus' American bulldog Zinga and uses an image of a bulldog as its logo. Zynga's first game, Texas Hold 'Em Poker , now known as Zynga Poker , was released on Facebook in July 2007. It was the first game Facebook introduced on its social networking platform. Zynga became the Facebook app developer with
588-514: The proceeds from the purchase of virtual goods from more than seven of its games would go toward Japan's Save the Children Earthquake Emergency Fund. During the 2012 holiday season, Zynga.org partnered with Toys for Tots in its largest charitable campaign not related to disaster relief. The campaign raised $ 745,000, with 100 percent of the purchase price of certain virtual goods going to Toys for Tots. Waldron
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#1732790638037616-637: The stock performed poorly, but in 2017 the price hit a three-year high. By the end of 2017 Zynga's shares were trading at $ 4.00, a 56% gain for the year. USA India China Japan USA USA USA (Game engine technology) Germany USA Chess with Friends USA Parking Wars Drop7 USA Madden 2005 and 2006 ; NASCAR 07 ; Pirates of the Caribbean ; Flowerz USA USA Tony Hawk USA Hit it Rich Slots Clumsy Ninja United Kingdom USA Justin Waldron Zynga
644-498: The studio in 2022. In its first round of funding in January 2008, Zynga received US$ 10 million. In July of the same year, Zynga received US$ 29 million in venture finance from several firms. During its first four years of operation Zynga raised a total of $ 854 million in three rounds of fund raising. The last round, in February 2011, raised $ 490 million. On July 1, 2011, the company filed its Form S-1 registration statement with
672-559: The time, the company had 2,000 employees. On November 28, 2011, the Finnish game developer Rovio Entertainment rejected an acquisition attempt from Zynga worth $ 2.25 billion. Zynga began trading on NASDAQ on December 16, 2011. On June 26, 2012, during the Zynga Unleashed conference, Zynga announced the "Zynga With Friends" network, aiming to connect players of Zynga game titles across multiple platforms. Zynga also announced
700-609: Was born and raised in Watertown, Connecticut . He began programming his first video games and websites at 11 years old, shortly after receiving his first computer. His early software projects included hacking AOL , a favorite childhood pastime shared by other notable technology company founders such as Mark Zuckerberg . Waldron also reverse engineered the disassembled MIPS machine code of PlayStation 2 games in his spare time to add his own features. In high school, Waldron cracked Burger King 's coupon code algorithm and launched
728-463: Was closed. Don Mattrick left Zynga in April 2015, replaced by predecessor Mark Pincus. Frank Gibeau took over as CEO on March 7, 2016, with Pincus once again stepping aside. Gibeau's last position was as head of mobile for Electronic Arts . He joined Zynga's board of directors in August, 2015. In the fourth quarter of 2017, revenue was $ 233.3 million, a 22% increase from the same quarter in 2016,
756-619: Was first reported to The Hacker News in September of 2019 by Pakistani hacker "Gnosticplayers" claiming to have access to 218 million accounts across the Zynga portfolio. Although the breach was later confirmed by Zynga, the company did not comment on the number of accounts and may have failed to disclose the breach to users. OMGPop's game selection included standard board , card , and sports video games , clones of more well known video games , and special versions of licensed games such as Atari 's Missile Command . OMGPop's most popular game
784-533: Was their Pictionary -like game entitled Draw Something. On 16 March 2012 it was reported that it was the most played game on Facebook registering 10.8 million daily active users, compared to Zynga 's Words with Friends with 8.6 million daily active users. On 4 April 2012 OMGPop reported that their hit game Draw Something had surpassed over 50 million downloads and that since the game's launch, over 6 billion drawings had been shared between friends. Zynga Inc. Zynga Inc. ( / ˈ z ɪ ŋ ɡ ə / )
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