Report: Omgpop shut downs as part of Zynga's restructuring

As part yesterday's staff purging at Zynga, which saw 520 employees lose their jobs, in other words 18 percent of its staff, Zynga shut down Draw Something developer Omgpop's office, according to a report from The Verge. Along with the layoffs, Zynga shut down its Los Angeles, Dallas, and New York offices. But, Zynga New York does include Omgpop, and now former Omgpop employees are making it public on Twitter that they are out of jobs. Approximately 15 months ago, Zynga purchased Omgpop for $180 million, and now it's doors are closed. Before shuttering the studio, Zynga even wrote off between $85 million and $90 million in October 2012. Prior to its acquisition, Omgpop was originally named iminlikewithyou, a social gaming portal. Before its explosive hit Draw Something (Draw My Thing on the web), which reached 50 million downloads in about two months, Omgpop was producing hit titles like Hover Kart and Missile Command. In March, television personality Ryan Seacrest tweeted the first sign of Draw Something 2's existence. The Pictionary-like game later launched on the same day that Zynga reported its less than stellar Q1 2013 earnings. Before Draw Something 2 (review) hit the market, Zynga's New York office general manager Dan Porter and former founder and CEO of Omgpop left Zynga. It didn't take long for Draw Something 2 to reach the top of the charts, but after a month since releasing in late April, the title has fallen off considerably. According to our traffic tracking service AppData, Draw Something 2 (free version) is outside the top 100 on the top free iPhone apps chart, while the paid version ($2.99) is outside the top 50 on the top paid iPhone apps chart. Zynga is at a critical point in its life, and its hard to not see Omgpop as a disappointing acquisition for Zynga.

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Report: Omgpop shut downs as part of Zynga's restructuring

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