Can a new CEO fix Zynga, which has lost nearly $1 billion since 2008?

Zynga founder Mark Pincus has been booted out of the CEO job twice. (credit: Joi Ito)

It’s hard to overstate how much Zynga has collapsed in recent years, and it's struggling to regain its past glory. Since 2008, Zynga has lost nearly $1 billion and has only had one profitable year (2010).

Over the course of 2015, its quarterly average of daily average users (DAU) steadily declined from 25 million during the first quarter to 18 million in the fourth quarter. By comparison, Zynga DAU peaked at 72 million back in Q2 2012.

So what will the tenacious San Francisco startup do now? According to a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, founder Mark Pincus has been ousted again—he came back as CEO for the second time in April 2015. On March 7, the job will go to Frank Gibeau, a veteran of Electronic Arts—and he will be paid handsomely for it. Gibeau’s minimum salary will be $1 million and a “guaranteed minimum annual bonus equal to 100% of his annual base salary, pro-rated for the number of days he works for Zynga in 2016.”

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