Important Zynga Shareholders Still Profit Despite Company’s Continual Collapse

Not every one of Zynga’s shareholders practically lost everything in the social media game developers recent stock market crash. Important shareholders actually came out of the mess a little bit richer.

Zynga’s stock has dropped from $12 per share to $3 per share, but some sold their large shares right before this happened, walking away with millions. It’s worth noting that the senior staff still holds stock, so it’s not as if they lost nothing. That being said, the Zynga CEO, CFO, COO, and General Counsel more than made up for their loses. Reginald Davis, the General Counsel walked away with the least amount of money with a measly $3.8 million. CEO Mark Pincus collected $200 million for his 16.5 million shares.

It was not just the board at Zynga that sold at the perfect time. Among the other high profile investors were Google, Silverlake Partners, and Reid Hoffman from PayPal. This situation reeks of insider trading, but as of now these majority shareholders are safe, sound, and a bit richer.

Richard Greenfield, a market analyst, spoke to the escapist about his regret recommending Zynga to his customers.

“Right now, everything is going wrong for Zynga,” he said. “In a rapidly changing Internet landscape that is moving to mobile, it’s very hard to have confidence these issues are temporary.”

Zynga blames this tremendous collapse on Facebook, a crappy Mafia Wars 2, and a horribly timed purchase of Draw Something.