Zynga laid off about 520 employees across its worldwide operations today, cutting its workforce by 18 percent. The largest yet in a string of layoffs will reduce the company's annual expenses by $70 to $80 million as it scrambles to move from flagging browser-based social games to mobile projects.
"None of us ever expected to face a day like today, especially when so much of our culture has been about growth," Zynga CEO Mark Pincus wrote to employees in an internal memo, also published to Zynga's blog. "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."
Pincus' memo and Zynga's press release did not address specific studio closures, but sources who spoke to Polygon and AllThingsD confirmed that its New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas locations have all been shut down.
Zynga expects to lose $39 million to $28.5 million in the second quarter of 2013.
