Ranked among the likes of former Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn, Avon chief Andrea Jung and more is Mark Pincus in Bloomberg's list of the five worst CEOs of 2012. The Zynga commander-in-chief made the not-so prestigious list, curated by Dartmouth professor Sydney Finklestein, for his company's stock plummeting 75 percent (so far) in 2012, coupled with talent drain issues.Bloomberg's Business Week, attributing Finklestein, also lists Pincus's "illustrious pedigree," but notes that the guy has made some "rookie mistakes." Namely, founding Zynga on such a dependent relationship with Facebook was no-no, according to the professor, not to mention that time when he unloaded 16 million shares after Zynga's IPO lockup period ended.
Frankly, it's not terribly surprising to see Mr. Pincus make this year's list. The gaming and business worlds alike watched Zynga like hawks in 2012 not only because it was one of the only gaming companies to go public this year, but because the company arguably blazed the trail in a nascent genre of games up until now.
That Zynga didn't exactly knock its public stock debut out of the park only exacerbates the realization that social gaming might not be the savior of the (financially) ailing games business. Now, if Pincus makes the list next year, then we'll have a little more to talk about.
[Via GameSpot]
Are you surprised to see Pincus on this year's list? What do you think of Zynga's performance this year? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.