Zynga was named after Mark Pincus' late dog.
Zynga was named after Mark Pincus' late dog.
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Don Mattrick shows his poker hand for turning Zynga around in mobile (interview)

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 9 min

Seven months into his tenure as chief executive of Zynga, Don Mattrick is making some bold moves.

Today, he is announcing three major mobile titles based on Zynga flagship franchises Words With Friends, FarmVille, and Zynga Poker. A month ago, he agreed to pay $527 million for NaturalMotion, the publisher of hot mobile titles like CSR Racing and Clumsy Ninja. Many executives have left the company in recent months and Mattrick is replacing them with his own picks, like chief operating officer Clive Downie.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.