Zynga's chief marketing officer, Jeff Karp, resigns

Zynga’s chief marketing officer, Jeff Karp, resigns

By Alex Pham

Sept. 10, 2012 12 AM PT

Zynga has lost another “chief.”

The San Francisco social gaming company confirmed on Monday that its chief marketing and chief revenue officer, Jeff Karp, has resigned.

Karp left after just 13 months at Zynga. He was previously executive vice president of Electronic Arts, where he headed up the company’s Play Label. Karp came to Zynga after his former colleague at EA, John Schappert, recruited him to join the rapidly growing social games company. Schappert, who has been Zynga’s chief operating officer, left his job in August.

“Jeff Karp is leaving Zynga, and the groups in his organization have been realigned under appropriate existing divisions” said a statement from Zynga on Karp’s departure. “Our marketing and revenue teams have always been industry leaders, and as we continue our transition toward mobile and multiplatform game creation and distribution, their continued execution will be key to our future success. We are grateful to Jeff for his contributions over the last year and wish him well in his future endeavors.”

Zynga, which aggressively recruited top executives over the last five years from traditional video game companies such as EA, has shed many of them in recent months. Schappert and Karp came from EA, as did Mike Verdu, who resigned from his post as Zynga’s chief creative officer in August in order to form a new game company.

The exodus has not gone unnoticed by Zynga’s rivals.

“Zynga people have good skills and experience,” said EA Executive Vice President of Human Resources Gabrielle Toledano, who has noted an uptick in résumés coming into her office from Zynga employees and has hired “several” of them. “They’ll have no trouble finding jobs elsewhere in the game industry.”
EA’s Studio President Frank Gibeau, put it less diplomatically, “Zynga’s about as stable as Syria right now.”

Zynga’s stock, which debuted on the market in December at $10 a share, fell 6 cents to $2.82 Monday following Karp’s announcement.