David Ko, Steve Chiang To Oversee Zynga Game Development

By Gerry Shih

(Reuters) - Embattled Zynga Inc has shuffled its top management following a calamitous second quarter that left its stock in the gutter and spurred shareholder lawsuits.

The game publisher said Chief Operating Officer John Schappert will no longer oversee game development. Those responsibilities have been shifted to Chief Mobile Officer David Ko and Executive Vice President of Games Steve Chiang, who will now report directly to Chief Executive Mark Pincus, the company said in a statement.

"In order to unify our company around a multi-platform approach, we reorganized our teams in July to integrate web and mobile groups," Zynga said.

Zynga shares were trading at $2.84 on Wednesday, down 4 percent on the day and 72 percent below the company's IPO price of $10 in December.

The shakeup reflected the company's move to prioritize its mobile offerings to compete in the fast-changing social gaming market, where users have been abandoning desktop games to play on smartphones instead.

"Our players expect their favorite games on every platform, and we want to unlock everyone in the company to continue moving quickly against the multi-platform opportunity," Zynga said.

A swift decline in players of its traditionally strong, Facebook-based games, which generate more than 90 percent of Zynga's revenues, stung the company in the second quarter. Zynga last week reported results that fell short of Wall Street expectations and slashed its full-year forecast, sending its stock tumbling 40 percent.

This week, two law firms have filed class-action shareholder lawsuits against the company.

The management shakeup was reported by Bloomberg on Tuesday.

(Reporting By Gerry Shih)