Zynga Founder Mark Pincus Retakes Helm as CEO Don Mattrick Leaves

Zynga has announced that Mark Pincus will be making a full circle return to his original role as Chief Executive Officer when Don Mattrick leaves.

The FarmVille studio at Zynga has announced a change in leadership. The company has revealed the departure of its current Chief Executive Officer, Don Mattrick, and the return of the company's founder and chairman, Mark Pincus, to the position. Pincus had only positive words in remembering Mattrick's career, saying:

Don joined us in a very important time in our evolution. I sincerely thank him for his leadership in better serving our players in a mobile first world and for delivering world class quality and value to our customers. The team's hard work for our mobile players has resulted in bookings growing from 27% mobile bookings when Don joined to 60% by the end of last year.

FarmVille reached 10 million daily active users within the first month and a half of launching on Facebook back in June 2009 (has it really been that long?). As of early 2013, the studio's multiple Facebook games, which include FarmVille 2, Zynga Poker and ChefVille, had over 265 million monthly active users. Unfortunately, people have started to ween off of Facebook's social games, as the company had to reduce its workforce by nearly 1,000 employees over the past two years, with daily active users falling 42 percent during this same period. On the other hand, its smartphone ventures have started to grow in response to the decrease in Facebook players.

"When I joined the company in July 2013, Mark and I shared a vision of building a meaningful company that redefines entertainment in an increasingly mobile world. I am proud of the progress we have made together," said Mattrick. "I believe the timing is now right for me to leave as CEO and let Mark lead the company into its next chapter given his passion for the founding vision and his ability to couple our mobile progress with Zynga's unique strengths."

We will just have to wait for Zynga's next earnings report to see if this was the right move for the company or if Mattrick leaving them will be a detriment.