Zynga blew $200 million on OMGPOP and then shut it down

Remember when Zynga bought up the developers of hugely popular fad game, Draw Something, last year? Remember when it signed the cheque for $200 million? Remember when Zynga went on to shut down that same company and fired almost everyone involved, just over a year later? That just happened.

We learned this morning that Zynga was firing over 500 staff and shutting several studios, but there was nothing in the company statement that suggested which ones and who. Now though, OMGPOP employees have been taking to twitter, many of them announcing swift trips to the nearest drinking establishment.

OMGPOP staff to Zynga: Draw this. Source: Newgrounds.

Ali Nicolas, a now ex-VP at Zynga, said: “I learned via Facebook I was laid off today and @OMGPOP office is closed. Thanks @zynga for again reminding me how not to operate a business.” The main OMGPOP twitter said – in response to a question about a previous tweet, asking where everyone was going – “to a bar, as quickly as possible!”

While it's true that the Zynga owned OMGPOP has fallen from grace since its initial spike of popularity in early 2012 with Draw Something, it's still a reasonably strong property – but evidently Zynga didn't feel that way. Its sudden firings and methods of letting employees know they just lot their job was also pretty poor.

KitGuru Says: Sorry to all those OMGPOP developers that will be looking for work in the next few days, but at least it sounds like wherever you work next will have nicer bosses.

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