Zynga Gets New CEO, Starting Salary Is $1 Million

Zynga has a new CEO. The San Francisco-based social gaming company behind FarmVille and more announced today that it has appointed Frank Gibeau to the role of chief executive. Gibeau, a former Electronic Arts executive who was already on Zynga's board of directors, will become CEO on March 7.

Current CEO Mark Pincus, also Zynga's founder, will transition into the role of executive chairman of the board.

"I recruited Frank seven months ago to become an active board member to advise and coach our teams," Pincus said in a statement. "Frank has mentored product teams, led roadmap meetings, and delivered inspiring talks to our game making and PM communities. Frank has also been a big supporter of our move to smaller more nimble teams. Equally important, we have worked well together and share a common vision for Zynga around mobile and social gaming."

"He has a proven 25-year track record having helped architect the successful turnaround of Electronic Arts as the President of EA Labels and more recently navigating the company's platform transition efforts as EVP of EA Mobile. In our industry he's known for driving operational excellence and leading winning teams on both the publishing and studio side of the gaming business."

In his own statement, Gibeau said he is "incredibly honored" to become Zynga's new CEO.

"Mark founded Zynga with the simple premise that it's more fun to play games with other people and that social gaming was a path to the mass market. I felt the power of this idea as a competitor and was inspired by how Zynga reached unexpected new audiences and opened up brand-new gaming platforms," he said.

Gibeau went on to say that he believes the "full promise" of Zynga and the social gaming market overall "has yet to be fully realized."

"We believe that Zynga has an opportunity to create new social experiences to connect even more players together. We will continue to invest in our talent and build on our empowered, entrepreneurial culture," he said. "As important, we must commit to a new level of operational excellence with focused execution, engineered hits and strong cost discipline. I'm excited to get started and expect a seamless transition given the progress we've made together over the past seven months. I'm encouraged by our early momentum and look forward to partnering with our teams to build on the progress we're seeing across the company."

According to government documents, Gibeau will be paid a base yearly salary of $1 million, though he could make much more than that. From the 8-K:

"Mr. Gibeau will be eligible to participate in Zynga's performance bonus plan for executive officers, with a target bonus amount equal to 100 percent of his annual base salary and a maximum bonus amount of 200 percent his annual base salary. For fiscal year 2016, Mr. Gibeau will receive a guaranteed minimum annual bonus equal to 100 percent of his annual base salary, pro-rated for the number of days he works for Zynga in 2016. For fiscal years after 2016, the actual amount of the annual bonus will be determined by the Compensation Committee of the Board in its sole discretion and be based upon its assessment of each of Zynga's and Mr. Gibeau's achievement of performance conditions during the applicable fiscal year."

Additionally, Gibeau is eligible for stock options.

Both Pincus and Gibeau sent memos to Zynga staffers today explaining the news. You can read them here.

Gibeau comes to Zynga as the company continues to lose money. In other Zynga corporate news, the company is considering selling its valuable San Francisco headquarters.