Wall Street analysts view Zynga’s choice of ex-Xbox boss Don Mattrick as both puzzling and positive

Wall Street analysts had a mixed reaction to Zynga’s decision to hire Microsoft games chief Don Mattrick as its new chief executive. Mattrick replaced founder Mark Pincus, who will remain chairman and chief product officer at the struggling social gaming giant.

“We view Mr. Mattrick’s appointment positively, although it is not without challenges,” wrote Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities. “Zynga has seen its market leadership in social gaming wane, and finds itself neck-and-neck with King.com for social games dominance [King.com passed Zynga, according to AppData, to become No. 1 this week]. Similarly, Zynga’s plans to expand on mobile devices have taken seemingly forever; while the company has grown over the past year, it has as yet to generate a significant portion of its revenue from mobile.”