Analysts and investors react well to Zynga’s new CEO Frank Gibeau

Zynga’s stock price rose 4 percent to $2.25 a share in the first full day of trading on Wall Street after the company announced that it had appointed ex-Electronic Arts veteran Frank Gibeau as its new chief executive officer. Game industry analysts also said that they believed Mark Pincus made a smart choice in hiring Gibeau as his replacement.

That speaks to a general confidence in Gibeau, who has served for seven months on Zynga’s board of directors and who engineered a turnaround at EA Mobile while at Electronic Arts, one of the largest makers of video games in the world. Pincus, the founder and prior CEO, has become the executive chairman and is staying at the company to work closely with Gibeau. We talked to both of them in an interview yesterday to find out what this means for the mobile gaming industry, which has become a $34.8 billion market (according to research firm Newzoo).