The social gaming company behind popular apps FarmVille and Draw Something has announced the closure of three U.S offices and the redundancy of over 500 staff in a bid to cut costs.
Despite boasting 240m active users every month, Zynga - on the back of Facebook integertion - launched a disastrous Inital Public Offering on the New York Stock Exchange in December 2011, with shares price at $10 each. The same shares closed at $2.99 following the announcement. Zynga now expect to make a loss of up to $39m this quarter.


In an email to staff Mark Pincus, founder and chief executive, wrote: "Today is a hard day for Zynga and an emotional one for every employee of our company. We are saying painful goodbyes to about 18% of our Zynga brothers and sisters. The impact of these layoffs will be felt across every group in the company.

"None of us ever expected to face a day like today, especially when so much of our culture has been about growth. But I think we all know this is necessary to move forward. The scale that served us so well in building and delivering the leading social gaming service on the web is now making it hard to successfully lead across mobile and multiplatform, which is where social games are going to be played."

The cuts represent around 18% of the company's total workforce, saving $80m a year. The social gaming revolution's shift to mobile has left Zynga's initial boom a distant memory, having already closed UK offices last October.