Zynga Laying Off 18 Percent of Workforce to Save $100M

Farmville gets closer to foreclosure as Words with Friends developer Zynga is laying off 18 percent of its workforce to try to cut $100 million in costs.

According to Polygon, Zynga will be cutting 364 employees from its roster in order to save $100 million in costs, which is roughly 18 percent of its entire staff. Zynga, known for its Words with Friends and Farmville games, will have these layoffs completed by the end of the year and will continue to try and reduce company costs in other ways. The company used to categorize its games as Farm, Casino, Racing, People, Sports and Words titles. It will now only focus on its revamped Action Strategy, Invest & Express, Social Casino, Casual and Racing categories.

"For our people, we need to create an empowered, entrepreneurial culture that fosters more creativity and innovation," said Zynga CEO Mark Pincus. "Over the years we've seen that tighter, more nimble teams can drive faster innovation and deliver more player value. As a result, today we announced a cost reduction program to focus, simplify and align us against our most promising opportunities..."

Over the past two years, Zynga already had to layoff almost 1,000 employees. If 364 employees represents an estimated 18 percent of Zynga's staff, this means its total workforce is currently around 2,000 employees. Combined with the previous 1,000 employees laid off over the past two years, Zynga will have decreased its workforce by roughly 45 percent from 2013-2016.

"This was a hard but necessary decision and I believe this plan puts us in the best long term position for success. We now expect to launch between 6 to 8 new mobile games in 2015 with a continued investment in our future pipeline for 2016 and beyond."