Last week was not a good one for the imaginary farm/mafia/faux-Scrabble™ merchants at Zynga. After their much ballyhooed CFO Dave Wehner jumped ship for Facebook, its Treasurer, Mike Gupta, decided that he'd found greener pastures at Twitter:
Zynga Inc. (ZNGA) Treasurer Mike Gupta is departing to take a similar role at Twitter Inc. as the largest maker of games played on social networks struggles to retain top managers amid slowing growth. Gupta, a former Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) executive who joined Zynga in 2011, has been named Twitter’s vice president of corporate finance and treasurer, San Francisco-based Twitter said in an e- mailed statement.
This has resulted in Chief Accounting Officer Mark Vranesh – an Ernst & Young alum whose former firm has been the company's guide-dog on its accounting – being placed back at the helm of the finance/accounting department. Other key people that have decided not to stick around include their operating, marketing, and creative chieftains. This, in addition to questions about the company's business prospects, has some investors a little concerned.
But back to the matter at hand – experts have never been crazy about Zynga's accounting which could mean that there's room for an up-and-coming strict GAAP constructionist like yourself to get on board and whip this place into shape. It wouldn't solve the problem of their products being an incredible nuisance* to those that have no interest in them, butat least the accounting wouldn't be such a problem any more.
*Full disclosure: I do enjoy a game of Scramble with Friends now and then.
Zynga Treasurer Mike Gupta Leaves for Finance Job at Twitter [Bloomberg via Francine McKenna]
