tech:

taffy

Zynga Gets A New CEO

Zynga_headquarters

Zynga has appointed Don Mattrick, formerly Microsoft’s head of  Xbox and gaming division, as CEO and a member of the board, effective July 8, 2013. Mark Pincus, Zynga’s founding chief executive officer, remains board chairman and chief product officer of the company.

The decision to switch CEOs comes in the middle of the company laying of some 520 employees, and closing offices. Mr. Pincus controlled 61 per cent of the company’s voting power as of the end of March.

Mr. Mattrick, 49, spent six years at Microsoft, the last three as president of the Interactive Entertainment Business. In that role, he was responsible for the team that grew Microsoft’s Xbox 360 global installed base by 700 percent to more than 75 million consoles, according to the statement released by Zynga.  

John Doerr (Member, Zynga Board; General partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers): Mark took the lead in working with the entire board to recruit Don to Zynga… This also is a win for Mark, who can devote his full attention to conceiving and building the best social games in the world.

Previously, Mr. Mattrick served as the president of Worldwide Studios at Electronic Arts. During his 15-year career at Electronic Arts, he helped develop and scale some of the company’s leading global game franchises and brands.

At age 17, Mr. Mattrick founded his first company, Distinctive Software, which was acquired by Electronic Arts in 1991.

Mr. Mattrick will report directly to the board and was unanimously appointed CEO. He will join Mr. Pincus in a newly formed executive committee to manage company operations together. 

You may also be interested in:

 

Just in

Tembo raises $14M

Cincinnati, Ohio-based Tembo, a Postgres managed service provider, has raised $14 million in a Series A funding round.

Raspberry Pi is now a public company — TC

Raspberry Pi priced its IPO on the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday morning at £2.80 per share, valuing it at £542 million, or $690 million at today’s exchange rate, writes Romain Dillet. 

AlphaSense raises $650M

AlphaSense, a market intelligence and search platform, has raised $650 million in funding, co-led by Viking Global Investors and BDT & MSD Partners.

Elon Musk’s xAI raises $6B to take on OpenAI — VentureBeat

Confirming reports from April, the series B investment comes from the participation of multiple known venture capital firms and investors, including Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (A16z), Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and Kingdom Holding, writes Shubham Sharma. 

Capgemini partners with DARPA to explore quantum computing for carbon capture

Capgemini Government Solutions has launched a new initiative with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to investigate quantum computing's potential in carbon capture.