UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 

FORM 10-K

 

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018

OR

For the transition period from              to             

Commission File Number: 001-35375

 

Zynga Inc.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)  

 

 

 

(855) 449-9642

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

 

 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

None

 

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.    Yes  ☒    No  ☐

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act.    Yes  ☐    No  ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes  ☒    No  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).    Yes  ☒    No  ☐

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§ 229.405 of this chapter) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer”, “smaller reporting company”, and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act:

 

 

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected to not use the extended transition period for complying with any new or reviewed financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Exchange Act Rule 12b-2).    Yes  ☐    No  ☒

The aggregate market value of the voting stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant on June 30, 2018, based upon the closing price of $4.07 of the registrant’s Class A Common Stock as reported on the NASDAQ Global Select Market, was approximately $3.1 billion, which excludes 87.1 million shares of the registrant’s common stock held on June 30, 2018 by then current executive officers, directors, and stockholders that the registrant has concluded are affiliates of the registrant.

As of January 31, 2019, there were 925,645,927 shares of the registrant’s Class A common stock outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s Proxy Statement for the 2019 Annual Meeting of Stockholders are incorporated herein by reference in Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K to the extent stated herein. The proxy statement will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days of the registrant’s fiscal year ended December 31, 2018.

 

 

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Zynga Inc.

Form 10-K

For the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2018

 

 

Zynga, the Zynga logo and other trademarks or service marks of Zynga appearing in this report are the property of Zynga. Trade names, trademarks and service marks of other companies appearing in this report are the property of their respective holders.

References in this report to “DAUs” mean daily active users of our games, “MAUs” mean monthly active users of our games, “MUUs” mean monthly unique users of our games, “ABPU” means average daily bookings per average DAU and “MUPs” mean monthly unique payers in our games. Unless otherwise indicated, these metrics are based on internally-derived measurements across all platforms on which our games are played. For further information about DAUs, MAUs, ABPU, MUUs, and MUPs as measured by us, see the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Metrics.”

 

 

 

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CAUTIONARY NOTE ABOUT FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward looking statements reflecting our current expectations that involve risks and uncertainties.  These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements related to industry prospects, our future economic performance including anticipated revenues and expenditures, results of operations or financial position, capital expenditures and other financial items, our business plans and objectives, including our growth strategies, intended product releases and areas of investment and focus, including our investments in new technologies and features, and may include certain assumptions that underlie the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements often include words such as “outlook,” “projected,” “intends,” “will,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “target,” “expect,” and statements in the future tense are generally forward-looking.

We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, short-term and long-term business operations and objectives, and financial needs. The achievement or success of the matters covered by such forward-looking statements involves significant risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those described in “Part I. Item 1A. Risk Factors” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment and industry. New risks may also emerge from time to time. It is not possible for our management to predict all of the risks related to our business and operations, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements we may make. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this Annual Report on Form 10-K may not occur and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated, predicted or implied in the forward-looking statements.

Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee that the future results, levels of activity, performance or events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance.  Given these risks and uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.

Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements for any reason to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations.

 

 

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PART I

ITEM 1. BUSINESS

Overview

Zynga Inc. (“Zynga” or “we” or the “Company”) is a leading provider of social game services. We develop, market and operate social games as live services played on mobile platforms such as Apple’s iOS operating system (“iOS”) and Google’s Android operating system (“Android”) and on social networking sites such as Facebook. Generally, all of our games are free to play, and we generate revenue through the sale of in-game virtual items (“online game revenue”) and advertising services (“advertising revenue”).

We are a pioneer and innovator of social games and a leader in making “play” a core activity on mobile devices and social networking sites. We believe our leadership position in social games is the result of our significant investment in our people, content, brand, technology and infrastructure. Our leadership position in social games is defined by the following:

Consistent with our free-to-play business model, a small portion of our players have historically been payers. Because the opportunity for social interactions increases as the number of players increases, we believe that maintaining and growing our overall number of players, including the number of players who may not purchase virtual items, is important to the success of our business. As a result, we believe that the number of players who choose to purchase virtual items will continue to constitute a small portion of our overall players.

Our top three online game revenue-generating games historically have contributed a significant portion of our revenue, though the games that represent our top three online game revenue-generating games vary over time. Our top three online game revenue-generating games accounted for 45%, 45% and 44% of our online game revenue in 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively. In 2018, our top three online game revenue-generating games were Zynga Poker, CSR Racing 2 and Hit It Rich! Slots. With respect to advertising and other revenue, Words with Friends generated a substantial portion of our advertising and other revenue in 2018, 2017 and 2016.  

Our operations are headquartered in San Francisco, California, and we have several operating locations in the U.S. as well as various international office locations in North America, Asia and Europe. We were originally organized in April 2007 and completed our initial public offering in December 2011. Our Class A common stock is listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “ZNGA.”

Our Mission & Strengths

Our mission is to connect the world through games. We pursue that mission in the following ways:

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Our Leading Portfolio of Social Games

Our strategy is focused on growing, creating and acquiring games that we believe will stand the test of time and have the potential to engage players for years as enduring entertainment brands. Our portfolio includes:

 

Our Network

We believe it is more fun for players to engage in our games with their friends and family. Players also progress faster in our games by connecting with their friends and other players in our network to instantly get what they need to complete quests, obtain virtual items and enhance their experience. We aspire to leverage our existing and new games to bring the best social playing experiences to our audience. Our network enables users to discover new games, find and connect with new friends, and challenge, cooperate and compete with their friends, all of which drive higher user engagement for games on our network.

Our Revenues

We generate revenue from the following services:

Virtual Items and Advertisement-Free Versions

Our primary revenue source is the sale of virtual currency that players use to buy in-game virtual items. Virtual currency can also be earned for free by the player through game play or by accepting promotional offers from our advertising partners. We also generate revenue when players purchase advertisement-free versions of our mobile games.

Advertising and Licensing

Our advertising services and licensing offer creative ways for marketers and advertisers to reach and engage with our players while allowing continued operation of a free-to-play business model. Our advertising and licensing offerings include:

The goal of our advertisement offerings are to enhance the player experience while delivering real value to advertisers.  

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Marketing and Distribution

We acquire our players through unpaid channels by cross-promoting new games to our existing audience and through paid advertising channels. We have been able to build a large community of players through the viral and sharing features provided by social networks, the social innovations in our games and the network effects of our games. We also advertise our games within other mobile applications, on social networks such as Facebook via various in-app advertising partners and through other advertising partners such as Google. In 2018, 2017 and 2016 we spent $157.7 million, $147.2 million and $132.5 million, respectively, on these player acquisition costs.

Agreements with Apple, Google and Facebook

Our revenue depends on our continued ability to publish our games on mobile platforms, primarily iOS and Android, and on social networking sites, primarily Facebook. In 2018, we derived 51% of our revenue and bookings from Apple, 38% of our revenue and 39% of our bookings from Google and 9% of our revenue and 8% of our bookings from Facebook. In 2018, an increasing number of our players played our games on mobile platforms.

Our use of mobile platforms and data derived from mobile platforms is governed by the standard terms of service of the mobile platforms, primarily Apple and Google. Our use of the Facebook platform and data derived from Facebook is also governed by Facebook’s standard terms of service except for certain limited addenda. Any of these operators could unilaterally alter their terms of service in a manner that could harm our business.

Research and Development

We believe continued investment in enhancing existing games and developing new games, and in software development tools and code modification, is important to attaining our strategic objectives. Our research and development expenses were $270.3 million, $256.0 million and $320.3 million in 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively, which included stock-based compensation expense of $42.2 million, $42.2 million and $84.2 million, respectively, for research and development personnel.

Technology and Tools

We have invested extensively in developing our proprietary technology stack, which has the ability to handle sudden bursts of activity for millions of players over a short period of time with high levels of performance and reliability. Our proprietary technology stack includes cloud computing management, a shared code base, network and cross-promotional features and proprietary data analytics. Our technology stack also supports the growth of our 2D and 3D game engines across our mobile games in addition to supporting high-level security and anti-fraud infrastructure. We are also investing in machine learning. We believe that investing in technology and tools can create competitive advantages as well as extend our technology leadership. We will continue to innovate and optimize across our technology and tools to deliver cost-effective, high performance and highly available social games.

Intellectual Property

Our business is significantly based on the creation, acquisition, use and protection of intellectual property. Some of this intellectual property is in the form of software code, patented technology and trade secrets that we use to develop our games and to enable them to run properly on multiple platforms. Other intellectual property we create includes product and feature names and audio-visual elements, including graphics, music, story lines and interface design.

While most of the intellectual property we use is created by us, we have also acquired rights to proprietary intellectual property. We have also obtained rights to use intellectual property through licenses and service agreements with third parties. These licenses typically limit our use of intellectual property to specific uses and for specific time periods.

We protect our intellectual property rights by relying on federal, state and common law protections, as well as contractual restrictions. We actively seek patent protection covering our inventions and we acquire patents we believe may be useful or relevant to our business. We control access to our proprietary technology by entering into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and contractors, and confidentiality agreements with third parties. We also actively engage in monitoring and enforcement activities with respect to infringing uses of our trademarks, copyrights and domain names by third parties.

In addition to these contractual arrangements, we also rely on a combination of trade secrets, copyrights, trademarks, trade dress, domain names and patents to protect our games and other intellectual property. We typically own the copyrights to the software code to our content, as well as the trademarks for the brands or titles under which our games are marketed. We pursue the registration of our domain names, copyrights, trademarks, patents, and service marks in the U.S. and, for some, in locations outside the U.S. Our registered trademarks in the U.S. include “Zynga” and the names of our games, among others.

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Competition

We face significant competition in all aspects of our business. Specifically, we compete for the leisure time, attention and discretionary spending of our players with other social game developers on the basis of a number of factors, including quality of player experience, brand awareness and reputation and access to distribution channels.

We believe we compete favorably on these factors. However, our industry remains highly competitive and is evolving rapidly. Other developers of social games could develop more compelling content that competes with our social games and adversely affects our ability to attract and retain players and their entertainment time. These competitors, including companies of which we may not be currently aware, may take advantage of social networks, access to a large user base and their network effects to grow rapidly and virally.

Our competitors include:

Government Regulation

We are subject to various federal, state and international laws and regulations that affect companies conducting business on the Internet and mobile platforms, including those relating to privacy, use and protection of player and employee personal information and data (including the collection of data from minors), the Internet, behavioral tracking, mobile applications, content, advertising and marketing activities (including sweepstakes, contests and giveaways), and anti-corruption. Additional laws in all of these areas are likely to be passed in the future, which could result in significant limitations on or changes to the ways in which we can collect, use, host, store or transmit the personal information and data of our customers or employees, communicate with our players, and deliver products and services, and may significantly increase our compliance costs. As our business expands to include new uses or collection of data that are subject to privacy or security regulations, our compliance requirements and costs will increase and we may be subject to increased regulatory scrutiny.

Some of our games and features are based upon traditional casino games, such as slots and poker. We have structured and operate these games and features with gambling laws in mind and believe that these games and features do not constitute gambling. Our social casino games are offered for entertainment purposes only and do not offer an opportunity to win real money.

Seasonality

Approximately 26% of our revenue was derived from the “advertising and other” category in 2018. Advertising budgets are generally highest during the fourth quarter and decline significantly in the first quarter of the following year, which affects the revenues we derive from advertisements in our games. Additionally, we generally experience increases in game downloads and resulting online game revenues in the fourth quarter and first quarter corresponding to increases in smartphone and tablet purchases during the holiday shopping season.

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Employees

Our future success depends upon the continued service of our key technical and management personnel and upon our ability to continue to attract and retain qualified employees, particularly our senior management team and highly skilled game designers, product managers and engineers. We currently have favorable employee relations, but the competition for technical personnel is intense, and the loss of key employees or the inability to hire such employees when needed could have a material adverse impact on our business and financial condition. As of December 31, 2018, we had 1,777 full-time employees.

Financial Information about Segments and Geographic Areas

 

We have one operating segment with one business activity, developing and monetizing social games.  Financial information about our one segment and geographic areas is incorporated into this section by reference to our consolidated financial statements including Note 2 —“Revenue from Contracts with Customers” and Note 5 —“Property and Equipment, Net” in the notes to the consolidated financial statements.

Available Information

Our website is located at www.zynga.com and our investor relations website is located at http://investor.zynga.com. We make available (free of charge and available for download) on our investor relations website our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, proxy statements and other Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) filings, and any amendments to those reports and any other filings that we file with or furnish to the SEC as soon as reasonably practicable after they are filed.

We post an audio version of our earnings calls and may webcast certain events we participate in or host with members of the investment community on our investor relations website. Additionally, we provide notifications of news or announcements regarding our financial performance, including SEC filings, investor events, press and earnings releases as part of our investor relations website. Investors and others can receive notifications of new information posted on our investor relations website in real time by signing up for email alerts and RSS feeds. Further corporate governance information, including our certificate of incorporation, bylaws, governance guidelines, board committee charters and committee memberships, and code of conduct, is also available on our investor relations website under the heading “Corporate Governance.” We use these channels as well as social media to communicate information about our company, our services and other issues. It is possible that the information we post on social media could be deemed to be material information. Therefore, we encourage investors, the media, and others interested in our company to review the information we post on the social media channels listed on our investor relations website. The contents of our websites are not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with the SEC, and any references to our websites are intended to be inactive textual references only.

 

 

ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

We have identified the following risks and uncertainties that may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or reputation. The risks described below are not the only risks we face. Additional risks not presently known to us or that we currently believe are not material may also significantly affect our business, financial condition, results of operations or reputation. Our business could be harmed by any of these risks. The trading price of our Class A common stock could decline due to any of these risks, and you may lose all or part of your investment. In assessing these risks, you should also refer to the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including our consolidated financial statements and related notes.

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

Our business will suffer if we are unable to entertain our players, develop new games, improve the experience of our existing games, and successfully monetize our games.

Our business depends on developing, publishing and continuing to service “free-to-play” games that consumers will download and spend time and money playing. We are primarily focused on mobile gaming, offering our games on mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets on Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems, and on social networking platforms such as Facebook.  We have devoted and we expect to continue to devote substantial resources to the research, development, analytics and marketing of our games.  Our development and marketing efforts are focused on both improving the experience of our existing games (frequently through new content and feature releases for our live services) and developing new games.  We generate revenue primarily through the sale of in-game virtual items and advertising.  For games distributed through third-party platforms, we are required to share a portion of our revenues from in-game sales with the platform providers.  Due to our focus on mobile gaming, these costs are expected to remain a significant operating expense.  In order to remain profitable, we need to generate sufficient bookings and revenues from our existing and new game offerings to offset our ongoing development, marketing and operating costs.

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Successfully monetizing “free-to-play” games is difficult, and requires that we deliver valuable and entertaining player experiences that a sufficient number of players will pay for or we are able to otherwise sufficiently monetize our games (for example, by serving in-game advertising). The success of our games depends, in part, on unpredictable and volatile factors beyond our control including consumer preferences, competing games, new mobile platforms and the availability of other entertainment experiences.  If our games do not meet consumer expectations, or if they are not brought to market in a timely and effective manner, our ability to grow revenue and our financial performance will be negatively affected.

We focus our efforts on four categories: Action Strategy, Casual, Invest Express and Social Casino. In addition to the market factors noted above, our ability to successfully develop games for mobile platforms and their ability to achieve commercial success will depend on our ability to:

These and other uncertainties make it difficult to know whether we will succeed in continuing to develop successful live service games and launch new games and features in accordance with our operating plan. If we do not succeed in doing so, our business, financial condition, results of operations or reputation will suffer.

Our industry is intensely competitive and subject to rapid changes. If consumers prefer our competitors’ products or services over our own, our operating results could suffer.

Competition in the gaming industry, especially the mobile gaming segment, is intense and subject to rapid changes, including changes from evolving consumer preferences and emerging technologies. Many new games are introduced in each major industry segment (mobile, web, PC, and console), but only a relatively small number of titles account for a significant portion of total revenue in each segment. Our competitors that develop mobile and web games vary in size and include companies such as Activision Blizzard (the parent company of King Digital), Aristocrat, DoubleU, Electronic Arts (EA Mobile), Epic Games, Glu Mobile, Jam City, Machine Zone, Netmarble (the parent company of Kabam), NetEase (NetEase Games), Niantic, Peak Games, Playtika, SciGames Interactive, Supercell, Take-Two Interactive Software, Vivendi (the parent company of Gameloft) and others. In addition, online game developers and distributors who are primarily focused on specific international markets, such as Giant Interactive and Tencent in Asia, and high-profile companies with significant online presences that to date have not actively focused on social games, such as Facebook, Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft, may decide to develop social games. Some of these current and potential competitors have significant resources for developing or acquiring additional games, may be able to incorporate their own strong brands and assets into their games, have a more diversified set of revenue sources than we do and may be less severely affected by changes in consumer preferences, regulations or other developments that may impact our industry.

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As there are relatively low barriers to entry to develop a mobile or online game, we expect new game competitors to enter the market and existing competitors to allocate more resources to develop and market competing games and applications. We also compete or will compete with a vast number of small companies and individuals who are able to create and launch games and other content for devices and platforms using relatively limited resources and with relatively limited start-up time or expertise. The proliferation of titles in these open developer channels makes it difficult for us to differentiate ourselves from other developers and to compete for players without substantially increasing our marketing expenses and development costs.  As an entertainment company, we also face competition for the leisure time, attention and discretionary spending of our players from other non-gaming activities, such as social media and messaging applications, personal computer and console games, video streaming services, television, movies, sports and the Internet. Increasing competition could result in loss of players, increasing player acquisition and retention costs, and loss of talent, all of which could harm our business, financial condition or results of operations.

We rely on third-party platforms such as the Apple App Store, the Google Play Store and Facebook to distribute our games and collect revenue. If we are unable to maintain a good relationship with such platform providers, if their terms and conditions or pricing changed to our detriment, if we violate, or if a platform provider believes that we have violated, the terms and conditions of its platform, or if any of these platforms loses market share or falls out of favor or is unavailable for a prolonged period of time, our business will suffer.

We derive a significant portion of our bookings from distribution of our games on the Apple App Store, the Google Play Store, and Facebook and the virtual items we sell in our games are purchased using the payment processing systems of these platform providers. Additionally, we have historically acquired a significant number of our players through Facebook. In 2018, we derived 51% of our revenue and bookings on Apple platforms, 38% of our revenue and 39% of our bookings on Google platforms and 9% of our revenue and 8% of our bookings on Facebook platforms.

We are subject to the standard policies and terms of service of third-party platforms, which govern the promotion, distribution, content and operation generally of games on the platform.  Each platform provider has broad discretion to change and interpret its terms of service and other policies with respect to us and other developers, and those changes may be unfavorable to us.  For example, in 2018 our Zynga Poker audience was impacted by platform changes made by Facebook which impacted the players’ ability to access and log into the game.  A platform provider may also change its fee structure, add fees associated with access to and use of its platform, alter how we are able to advertise on the platform, change how the personal information of its users is made available to application developers on the platform, limit the use of personal information for advertising purposes, or restrict how players can share information with their friends on the platform or across platforms. For example, in December 2017, Apple revised its App Store Guidelines to require the disclosure of the odds of receiving certain types of virtual items from “loot boxes” (or similar mechanisms that offer a paid license to randomized virtual items) before customers purchase a license for the virtual items.  We are continuing to evaluate how Apple will interpret this revision, whether Google, Facebook and other platform providers adopt similar rules, and how this rule may affect our business, operations and financial results.

In addition, third-party platforms also impose certain file size limitations, which may limit the ability of players to download some of our larger games in over-the-air updates.  Aside from these over-the-air file size limitations, a larger game file size could cause players to delete our games once the file size grows beyond the capacity of their devices’ storage limitations or could reduce the number of downloads of these games.

Such terms of use changes may decrease the visibility or availability of our games, limit our distribution capabilities, prevent access to our existing games, reduce the amount of bookings and revenue we may recognize from in-game purchases, increase our costs to operate on these platforms or result in the exclusion or limitation of our games on such platforms.  Any such changes could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. 

If we violate, or a platform provider believes we have violated, its terms of service (or if there is any change or deterioration in our relationship with these platform providers), that platform provider could limit or discontinue our access to the platform.  A platform provider could also limit or discontinue our access to the platform if it establishes more favorable relationships with one or more of our competitors or it determines that we are a competitor.  Any limit or discontinuation of our access to any platform could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. 

We also rely on the continued popularity, customer adoption, and functionality of third-party platforms.  In the past, some of these platform providers have been unavailable for short periods of time or experienced issues with their in-app purchasing functionality. If either of these events recurs on a prolonged, or even short-term, basis or other similar issues arise that impact players’ ability to access our games, access social features or purchase a license to virtual items, our business, financial condition, results of operations or reputation may be harmed.

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We rely on third-party hosting and cloud computing providers, like Amazon Web Services (“AWS”), to operate certain aspects of our business.  A significant portion of our game traffic is hosted by a single vendor, and any failure, disruption or significant interruption in our network or hosting and cloud services could adversely impact our operations and harm our business.

Our technology infrastructure is critical to the performance of our games and to player satisfaction, as well as our corporate functions. Our games and company systems run on a complex distributed system, or what is commonly known as cloud computing. We own, operate and maintain elements of this system, but significant elements of this system are operated by third-parties that we do not control and which would require significant time and expense to replace. We expect this dependence on third-parties to continue. We have suffered interruptions in service in the past, including when releasing new software versions or bug fixes, and if any such interruption were significant and/or prolonged it could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations or reputation.

In particular, a significant portion, if not almost all, of our game traffic, data storage, data processing and other computing services and systems is hosted by AWS. AWS provides us with computing and storage capacity pursuant to an agreement that continues until terminated by either party. The agreement requires AWS to provide us their standard computing and storage capacity and related support in exchange for timely payment by us. We have experienced, and may in the future experience, disruptions, outages and other performance problems due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, human or software errors and capacity constraints. If a particular game is unavailable when players attempt to access it or navigation through a game is slower than they expect, players may stop playing the game and may be less likely to return to the game as often, if at all.

Any failure, disruption or interference with our use of hosted cloud computing services and systems provided by third-parties, like AWS, could adversely impact our business, financial condition or results of operations. To the extent we do not effectively respond to any such interruptions, upgrade our systems as needed and continually develop our technology and network architecture to accommodate traffic, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be adversely affected. In addition, we do not maintain insurance policies covering losses relating to our systems and we do not have business interruption insurance. Furthermore, our disaster recovery systems and those of third-parties with which we do business may not function as intended or may fail to adequately protect our critical business information in the event of a significant business interruption, which may cause interruption in service of our games, security breaches or the loss of data or functionality, leading to a negative effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

Our operating results are volatile and difficult to predict, and our stock price may decline if we fail to meet the expectations of securities analysts or investors.

Our bookings, revenue, player metrics and operating results have fluctuated in the past and could vary significantly from quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year, and may fail to match our past performance or the expectations of securities analysts or investors because of a variety of factors, some of which are outside of our control.  Factors that may contribute to the variability of our operating results include the risk factors listed in these “Risk Factors” and the factors discussed in the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Factors Affecting Our Performance.”

In particular, it is difficult to predict if, or when, bookings from one of our games will begin to decline, the decay rate for any particular game (i.e., the speed at which the popularity and player usage for a game declines) and the commercial success of our new games and features. The success of our business depends on our ability to consistently and timely launch new games and features that achieve significant popularity and have the potential to become franchise games as bookings from our older games decline. It is difficult for us to predict with certainty when we will launch a new game as games may require longer development schedules or soft launch periods to meet our quality standards and our players’ expectations. If decay rates are higher than expected in a particular quarterly period and/or we experience delays in the launch of new games that we expect to offset decay rates of other games and/or new games do not monetize well, we may not meet our expectations or the expectations of securities analysts or investors for a given quarter.

In addition, we recognize revenue from the sale of our virtual items in accordance with U.S. GAAP, which is complex and based on our assumptions and historical data with respect to the sale and use of various types of virtual items. In the event of changes in our assumptions or new trends in the mix of virtual items sold, the amount of revenue that we recognize in any particular period may fluctuate significantly. In addition, changes in the policies of Facebook, Apple, Google or other third party platforms or accounting policies promulgated by the SEC and national accounting standards bodies affecting software and virtual items revenue recognition could further significantly affect the way we report revenue related to our products. Such changes could have an adverse effect on our reported revenue, net income and earnings per share under U.S. GAAP. For example, recurring activity such as new game launches, our acquisition of games from a third party or periods of significant increased bookings can also result in increases in deferred revenue while we initially defer bookings over the estimated average playing period of payers. For further information regarding our revenue recognition policy, see the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Critical Accounting Policies—Revenue Recognition”.

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Given the rapidly evolving social game industry in which we operate, our historical operating results may not be useful in predicting our future operating results. In addition, metrics we have developed or those available from third parties regarding our industry and the performance of our games, including DAUs, MAUs, MUUs, MUPs and ABPU may not be indicative of our future financial performance.

Our business will suffer if we are unable to successfully acquire or integrate acquired companies into our business or otherwise manage the growth associated with multiple acquisitions.

We have acquired games, businesses, personnel and technologies in the past, and we intend to continue to evaluate and pursue acquisitions and strategic investments. For example, in the fourth quarter of 2017, we acquired the casual card game division of Peak Games, in the second quarter of 2018, we acquired Gram Games and in early 2019, we acquired a controlling interest in Small Giant Games.  Each of these acquisitions require unique approaches to integration due to, among other reasons, the structure of the acquisitions, their locations and cultural differences among their teams and ours, and has required, and will continue to require, attention from our management team. If we are unable to obtain the anticipated benefits from these acquisitions and strategic investments, or we encounter difficulties in integrating their operations with ours, our financial condition and results of operations could be materially harmed.

Challenges and risks from such investments and acquisitions include:

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The benefits of an acquisition or investment may also take considerable time to develop, and we cannot be certain that any particular acquisition or investment will produce the intended benefits, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. Our ability to grow through future acquisitions will depend on the availability of suitable acquisition and investment candidates at an acceptable cost, our ability to compete effectively to attract these candidates and the availability of financing to complete larger acquisitions. Acquisitions could result in potential dilutive issuances of equity securities, use of significant cash balances or incurrence of debt (and increased interest expense), contingent liabilities or amortization expenses related to intangible assets or write-offs of goodwill and/or intangible assets, which could adversely affect our results of operations and dilute the economic and voting rights of our stockholders. For more information, see Note 7 – “Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets, Net” in the notes to the consolidated financial statements included herein.

A small number of games have generated a majority of our revenue, and we must continue to launch, innovate and enhance games that players like and attract and retain a significant number of players in order to grow our revenue and sustain our competitive position.

Historically, we have depended on a small number of games for a majority of our revenue and we expect that this dependency will continue for the foreseeable future. Bookings and revenue from many of our games may decline over time after reaching a peak of popularity and player usage. As a result, our business depends on our ability to engage with players by consistently and timely launching new games and enhancing existing games with new content, features and events. We believe that certain games have the potential to become franchises that we plan to invest in and support with new games releases (such as Words With Friends 2 and CSR Racing 2) and introduction of new features to existing games (such as new events within Zynga Poker, Merge Dragons! and Empires & Puzzles). Constant game enhancement requires the investment of significant resources, particularly with older games, and such costs on average have increased.

It is difficult to consistently anticipate player demand on a large scale, particularly as we develop games in new categories or new markets, including international markets and mobile platforms. If we do not successfully launch games that attract and retain a significant number of players and extend the life of our existing games, our market share, brand and financial results will be harmed.

We rely on a small portion of our total players for nearly all of our revenue and if we fail to grow our player base, or if player engagement continues to decline, bookings, revenue and operating results will be harmed.

Compared to all players who play our games in any period, only a small portion are paying players. In the fourth quarter of 2018, we had approximately 1.1 million average MUPs (excluding payers of Solitaire, our Facebook Instant Games, casual card games acquired in December 2017 and games acquired as part of our Gram Games acquisition), who represented approximately 2.2% of our average Monthly Unique Users. In order to sustain and grow our revenue levels, we must attract, retain and increase the number of paying players or more effectively monetize our players through advertising and other strategies. To retain players, we must devote significant resources so that the games they play retain their interest and attract them to our other games. We might not succeed in our efforts to increase the monetization rates of our users, particularly if we are unable to retain our paying players. If we fail to grow or sustain the number of our paying players, if the rates at which we attract and retain paying players declines or if the average amount our players pay declines, our business may not grow and our financial results will suffer.

The value of our virtual items is highly dependent on how we manage the economies in our games. If we fail to manage our game economies properly, our business may suffer.

Paying players purchase a license to virtual items in our games because of the perceived value of these goods, which is dependent on the relative ease of obtaining an equivalent good by playing our game. The perceived value of these virtual items can be impacted by various actions that we take in the games including offering discounts for virtual items, giving away virtual items in promotions or providing easier non-paid means to secure these goods. Managing game economies is difficult, and relies on our assumptions and judgement.  If we fail to manage our virtual economies properly or fail to promptly and successfully respond to any such disruption, our reputation may suffer and our players may be less likely to play our games and to purchase virtual items from us in the future, which would cause our business, financial condition and results of operations to suffer.

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Our revenue may be harmed by the proliferation of “cheating” programs and scam offers that seek to exploit our games and players, which may negatively affect game-playing experience and our ability to reliably validate our audience metric reporting and may lead players to stop playing our games.

Unrelated third parties have developed, and may continue to develop, “cheating” programs that enable players to exploit vulnerabilities in our games, play them in an automated way, collude to alter the intended game play or obtain unfair advantages over other players who do play fairly. These programs harm the experience of players who play fairly, may disrupt the virtual economies of our games and reduce the demand for virtual items, disrupting our in-game economy. In addition, unrelated third parties have attempted to scam our players with fake offers for virtual items or other game benefits. We devote significant resources to discover, discourage and disable these cheating and scam programs and activities. If we are unable to do so quickly, our operations may be disrupted, our reputation may be damaged, players may stop playing our games and our ability to reliably validate our audience metrics may be negatively affected. These cheating programs and scam offers result in lost revenue from paying players, disrupt our in-game economies, divert time from our personnel, increase costs of developing technological measures to combat these programs and activities, increase our customer service costs needed to respond to dissatisfied players, and may lead to legal claims.

Some of our players may make sales or purchases of virtual items used in our games through unauthorized or fraudulent third-party websites, which may reduce our revenue.

Virtual items in our games have no monetary value outside of our games. Nonetheless, some of our players may make sales and/or purchases of our virtual items, such as virtual coins for our Social Slots franchise games or Zynga Poker virtual poker chips, through unauthorized third-party sellers in exchange for real currency. These unauthorized or fraudulent transactions are usually arranged on third-party websites and the virtual items offered may have been obtained through unauthorized means such as exploiting vulnerabilities in our games, from scamming our players with fake offers for virtual items or other game benefits, or from credit card fraud. We do not generate any revenue from these transactions. These unauthorized purchases and sales from third-party sellers have in the past and could in the future impede our revenue and profit growth by, among other things:

To discourage unauthorized purchases and sales of our virtual items, we state in our terms of service that the buying or selling of virtual currency and virtual items from unauthorized third party sellers may result in bans from our games or legal action. With a community of players in the millions, we periodically encounter such issues and expect to continue to do so. We have banned players as a result of such activities. We have also filed lawsuits against third parties attempting to “sell” virtual items from our games, particularly poker chips from Zynga Poker, outside of our games. We have also employed technological measures to help detect unauthorized transactions and continue to develop additional methods and processes by which we can identify unauthorized transactions and block such transactions. However, there can be no assurance that our efforts to prevent or minimize these unauthorized or fraudulent transactions will be successful and that these actions will not increase over time.

We are subject to laws and regulations concerning privacy, information security, data protection, consumer protection and protection of minors, and these laws and regulations are continually evolving.  Our actual or perceived failure to comply with these laws and regulations could harm our business.

We receive, store and process personal information and other player data, and we enable our players to share their personal information with each other and with third parties, including on the Internet and mobile platforms. There are numerous federal, state and local laws around the world regarding privacy and the storing, sharing, use, processing, disclosure and protection of personal information and other player data on the Internet and mobile platforms, the scope of which are changing, subject to differing interpretations, and may be inconsistent between countries or conflict with other rules.

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Various government and consumer agencies have called for new regulation and changes in industry practices and are continuing to review the need for greater regulation for the collection of information concerning consumer behavior on the Internet, including regulation aimed at restricting certain targeted advertising practices.  For example, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), which became effective in May 2018, creates new individual privacy rights and imposes worldwide obligations on companies processing personal data of European Union users, which has created a greater compliance burden for us and other companies with European users, and subjects violators to substantial monetary penalties. Another example is the State of California’s passage of the California Consumer Protection Act of 2018 (“CCPA”), which will become effective in 2020 and will create new privacy rights for consumers residing in the state. There is also increased attention being given to the collection of data from minors. For instance, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) requires companies to obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from children under the age of 13. Compliance with GDPR, CCPA, COPPA and similar legal requirements has required us to devote significant operational resources and incur significant expenses.

All of our games are subject to our privacy policy and our terms of service located in application storefronts, within our games and on our corporate website.  We generally comply with industry standards and are subject to the terms of our privacy-related obligations to players and third parties. We strive to comply with all applicable laws, policies, legal obligations and certain industry codes of conduct relating to privacy and data protection, to the extent reasonably attainable. However, it is possible that these obligations may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with other rules or our practices.  For example, foreign laws and regulations are often more restrictive than those in the U.S.  In particular, the European Union and its member states traditionally have taken broader views regarding what data types are subject to data protection, and have imposed legal obligations on companies in this regard, as is the case with GDPR.  It is also possible that new laws, policies, legal obligations or industry codes of conduct may be passed, or existing laws, policies, legal obligations or industry codes of conduct may be interpreted in such a way that could prevent us from being able to offer services to citizens of a certain jurisdiction or may make it costlier or more difficult for us to do so.  Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with our privacy policy and terms of service, our privacy-related obligations to players or other third parties, or our privacy-related legal obligations, or any compromise of security that results in the unauthorized release or transfer of personally identifiable information or other player data, may result in governmental enforcement actions, litigation or public statements against us by consumer advocacy groups or others and could cause our players to lose trust in us, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. Additionally, if third parties we work with, such as players, vendors or developers violate applicable laws or our policies, such violations may also put our players’ information at risk and could in turn have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

Cybersecurity attacks, including breaches, computer viruses and computer hacking attacks could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations or reputation.

Cybersecurity attacks, including breaches, computer malware and computer hacking have become more prevalent in our industry. Any cybersecurity breach caused by hacking, which involves efforts to gain unauthorized access to information or systems, or to cause intentional malfunctions or loss or corruption of data, software, hardware or other computer equipment, or the inadvertent transmission of computer viruses could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations or reputation. We have experienced and will continue to experience hacking attacks of varying degrees from time to time, including denial-of-service attacks. Because of our prominence in the social game industry, we believe we are a particularly attractive target for hackers.

In addition, we store sensitive information, including personal information about our employees, and our games involve the storage and transmission of players’ personal information on equipment, networks and corporate systems run by us or managed by third-parties including Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google. We are subject to a number of laws, rules and regulations requiring us to provide notification to players, investors, regulators and other affected parties in the event of a security breach of certain personal data, or requiring the adoption of minimum information security standards that are often vaguely defined and difficult to practically implement.. The costs of compliance with these laws have increased and may increase in the future. Our corporate systems, third-party systems and security measures may be breached due to the actions of outside parties, employee error, malfeasance, a combination of these, or otherwise, and, as a result, an unauthorized party may obtain access to our data, our employees’ data, our players’ data or any third party data we may possess. Any such security breach could require us to comply with various breach notification laws and may expose us to litigation, remediation and investigation costs, increased costs for security measures, loss of revenue, damage to our reputation and potential liability.

If we do not successfully invest in, establish and maintain awareness of our brand and games, if we incur excessive expenses promoting and maintaining our brand, or our games or if our games contain defects or objectionable content, our business, financial condition, results of operations or reputation could be harmed.

We believe that establishing and maintaining our brand is critical to maintaining and creating favorable relationships with players, platform providers, advertisers and content licensors, as well as competing for key talent. Increasing awareness of our brand and recognition of our games is particularly important in connection with our strategic focus on developing games based on our own

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intellectual property and successfully cross-promoting our games. In addition, globalizing and extending our brand and recognition of our games requires significant investment and extensive management time to execute successfully. Although we make significant sales and marketing expenditures in connection with the launch of our games, these efforts may not succeed in increasing awareness of our brand or the new games. If we fail to increase and maintain brand awareness and consumer recognition of our games, our potential revenues could be limited, our costs could increase and our business, financial condition, results of operations or reputation could suffer.

In addition, if a game contains objectionable content or the messaging functionality of our games is abused, we could experience damage to our reputation and brand. Despite reasonable precautions, some consumers may be offended by certain of our game content, the third-party advertisements displayed in certain of our games, or by treatment of other users. If consumers believe that a game we published or third-party advertisement displayed in a game contains objectionable content, it could harm our brand and consumers could refuse to play it and could pressure the platform providers to remove the game from their platforms. For example, we rely on third-party advertising partners to display ads within our games, we have experienced (and may experience in the future) instances where offensive or objectionable content has been displayed in our games through our advertising partners.  While this may violate the terms of our agreements with these advertising partners, our reputation and player experience may suffer.  Furthermore, steps that we may take in response to such instances, such as temporarily or permanently shutting off access of such advertising partner to our network, may negatively impact our revenue in such period.  

Similarly, our games may contain errors, bugs, flaws, corrupted data, defects and other vulnerabilities, some of which may only become apparent after their launch, particularly as we launch new games and rapidly release new features to existing games under tight time constraints. Any such errors, flaws, defects and vulnerabilities may be exploited by cheating programs and other forms of misappropriation, disrupt our operations, adversely affect the game experience of our players, harm our reputation, cause our players to stop playing our games, divert our resources and delay market acceptance of our games, any of which could result in legal liability to us or harm our business, financial condition or results of operations.

If we are able to develop new games and features that achieve success, it is possible that these games and features could divert players of our other games without growing our overall user base, which could harm operating results.

Although it is important to our future success that we develop new games and features that are popular with players, it is possible that new games and features may reduce the amount of time players spend with our other games.  In particular, we plan to continue leveraging our existing games to cross-promote new games and features, which may encourage players of existing games to divert some of their playing time and discretionary spending away from our existing games.  If new games and game features do not grow our player base, increase the overall amount of time our players spend with our games, or generate sufficient new bookings to offset any declines from our other games, our bookings and revenue could be adversely affected.

We derive a significant portion of our revenues from advertisements and offers that are incorporated into our free-to-play games through relationships with third parties. If we are unable to continue to compete for these advertisements and offers, or if any events occur that negatively impact our relationships with advertisers, our advertising revenues and operating results would be negatively impacted.

We derive a significant portion of our revenues though advertisements and offers we serve to players. We need to maintain good relationships with advertisers to provide us with a sufficient inventory of advertisements and offers.  Online advertising, including through mobile games and other mobile applications, is an intensely competitive industry.  Many large companies, such as Amazon, Facebook and Google, invest significantly in data analytics to make their websites and platforms more attractive to advertisers.  In order for our advertising business to continue to succeed, we need to continue to demonstrate the reach of our player network and success of our advertising partners.  If our relationship with any advertising partners terminates for any reason, or if the commercial terms of our relationships are changed or do not continue to be renewed on favorable terms, we would need to qualify new advertising partners, which could negatively impact our revenues, at least in the short term.

In addition, internet-connected devices and operating systems controlled by third parties increasingly contain features that allow device users to disable functionality that allows for the delivery of advertising on their devices. Device and browser manufacturers may include or expand these features as part of their standard device specifications. For example, when Apple announced that UDID, a standard device identifier used in some applications, was being superseded and would no longer be supported, application developers were required to update their apps to utilize alternative device identifiers such as universally unique identifier, or, more recently, identifier-for-advertising, which simplify the process for Apple users to opt out of behavioral targeting. If users elect to utilize the opt-out mechanisms in greater numbers, our ability to deliver effective advertising campaigns on behalf of our advertisers would suffer, which could cause our business, financial condition, or results of operations to suffer. Finally, the revenues that we derive from advertisements and offers is subject to seasonality, as companies’ advertising budgets are generally highest during the fourth quarter and decline significantly in the first quarter of the following year, which negatively impacts our revenues in the first quarter.

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We have a history of net losses and our revenue, bookings and operating margins may decline. We also may incur substantial net losses in the future and may not achieve or sustain profitability.

The industry in which we operate is highly competitive and rapidly changing, and relies heavily on successful new product launches and continually introducing compelling content, products and services. As such, if we fail to deliver such content, products and services, do not execute our strategy successfully or if our new content launches are delayed, our revenue, bookings and audience numbers may decline, and our operating results will suffer. As of December 31, 2018, we had an accumulated deficit of $1.8 billion.

In addition, our operating margin may experience downward pressure as a result of increasing competition and the other risks discussed in this report. We expect to continue to expend substantial financial and other resources on game development, our technology stack, game engines, game technology and tools, the expansion of our network, international expansion and marketing. Our operating costs will increase and our operating margins may decline if we do not effectively manage costs, launch new products on schedule that monetize successfully and enhance our franchise games so that these games continue to monetize successfully. In addition, weak economic conditions or other factors could cause our business to further contract, requiring us to implement significant additional cost cutting measures, including a decrease in research and development and sales and marketing, which could harm our long-term prospects.

If our revenues do not increase to offset any additional expenses, if we fail to manage or experience unexpected increases in operating expenses or if we are required to take additional charges related to impairments or restructurings, our financial results and results of operations may suffer.

We rely on assumptions and estimates to calculate certain of our key metrics, and real or perceived inaccuracies in such metrics may harm our reputation and negatively affect our business.

The numbers of our DAUs, MAUs, MUUs, MUPs, and ABPU are calculated using metrics tracked by our internal analytics systems based on tracking activity of user accounts.  The analytics systems and the resulting data have not been independently verified. While these numbers are based on what we believe to be reasonable calculations for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring usage and user engagement across our user base and our recently acquired operations, and factors relating to user activity and systems may impact these numbers.  The calculation of these metrics and examples of how user activity and our systems may impact the calculation of the metrics is described in detail under the heading titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Measures and Metrics.”

Our accuracy in calculating these metrics is further challenged by our focus on mobile gaming. As described under the heading titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Measures and Metrics,” we rely on the accuracy and transparency of data provided by individuals and reported by third parties to calculate our metrics and eliminate duplication of data. For purposes of calculating MUUs and MUPs, for certain periods, we are unable to distinguish whether players of certain games are also players of our other games. As a result, we exclude players of these games from our calculation of MUUs and MUPs for those periods to avoid potential double counting.

Our advertisers and investors rely on our key metrics as a representation of our performance. We regularly review and may adjust our processes for calculating our internal metrics to improve their accuracy. If we determine that we can no longer calculate any of our key metrics with a sufficient degree of accuracy, and we cannot find an adequate replacement for the metric, our business, financial condition or results of operations may be harmed.  In addition, if advertisers, platform partners or investors do not perceive our user metrics to be accurate representations of our user base or user engagement, or if we discover material inaccuracies in our user metrics, our reputation may be harmed and advertisers and platform partners may be less willing to allocate their budgets or resources to our products and services, which could negatively affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.

Any restructuring actions and cost reduction initiatives that we undertake may not deliver the expected results and these actions may adversely affect our business.

We have implemented a number of restructurings during the last several years in which we implemented certain restructuring actions and cost reduction initiatives to streamline operations and improve cost efficiencies to better align our operating expenses with our revenue, including reducing our headcount, rationalizing our product pipeline, reducing marketing and technology expenditures and consolidating and closing certain facilities. We plan to continue to manage costs to better and more efficiently manage our business. Our restructuring plans and other such efforts could result in disruptions to our operations and adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. For more information, see Note 11 – “Restructuring” in the notes to the consolidated financial statements included herein.

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We actively monitor our costs, however, if we do not fully realize or maintain the anticipated benefits of any restructuring actions and cost reduction initiatives, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be adversely affected, and additional restructuring initiatives may be necessary. In addition, we cannot be sure that the cost reduction initiatives will be as successful in reducing our overall expenses as expected or that additional costs will not offset any such reductions. If our operating costs are higher than we expect or if we do not maintain adequate control of our costs and expenses, our operating results will suffer.

In addition, our cost-cutting measures could negatively impact our business, financial condition or results of operations including but not limited to, delaying the introduction of new games, features or events, interrupting live services, impairing our control environment, delaying introduction of new technology, impacting our ability to react nimbly to game or technology issues, or impacting employee retention and morale.

Our business and growth may suffer if we fail to attract, retain and motivate key personnel.

Our ability to compete and grow depends in large part on the efforts and talents of our employees and executives. Our success depends in a large part upon the continued service of our senior management team. We have seen significant changes in our management team in recent years, including the appointment of Frank Gibeau as our Chief Executive Officer, the appointment of Mark Pincus as our non-Executive Chairman and the appointments of our Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, President of Publishing, Chief People Officer and Chief Legal Officer.  Mr. Pincus and Mr. Gibeau are both critical to our vision, strategic direction, culture, products and technology, and the continued retention of our entire senior management team is important to the success of our operating plan. We do not have employment agreements, other than offer letters, with our senior management team, and we do not maintain key-man insurance for members of our senior management team. The loss of any member of our senior management team could cause disruption and harm our business, financial condition, results of operations or reputation.

In addition, our ability to execute our strategy depends on our continued ability to identify, hire, develop, motivate and retain highly skilled employees, particularly in the competitive fields of game design, product management and engineering. These employees are in high demand, and we devote significant resources to identifying, recruiting, hiring, training, successfully integrating and retaining them. We have continued to experience significant turnover in our headcount, which has placed and will continue to place significant demands on our management and our operational, financial and technological infrastructure. As of December 31, 2018, approximately 32% of our employees had been with us for less than one year and approximately 47% for less than two years.

We believe that two critical components of our success and our ability to retain our best people are our culture and our competitive compensation practices. As we operate as a public company, we may find it difficult to maintain our entrepreneurial, execution-focused culture. In addition, recent volatility in our operating results and the trading price of our Class A common stock may cause our employee base to be more vulnerable to be targeted for recruitment by competitors. Competition for highly skilled employees is intense, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area, where our headquarters is located. If we are unable to identify, hire and retain our senior management team and our key employees, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be harmed. Moreover, if our team fails to work together effectively to execute our plans and strategies on a timely basis, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be harmed.

We have historically hired a number of key personnel through acquisitions, and as competition with other game companies for attractive target companies with a skilled employee base persists and increases, we may incur significant expenses and difficulty in continuing this practice. In addition, volatility in our operating results and the trading price of our Class A common stock may negatively impact our perceived reputation and make it more difficult and more expensive to successfully retain employees through acquisitions. The loss of talented employees with experience in the assets we acquire could result in significant disruptions to our business and the integration of acquired assets and businesses. If we do not succeed in recruiting, retaining, and motivating these key employees, we may not achieve the anticipated results of acquisitions.

Our core values of focusing on our players and acting for the long-term may conflict with the short-term expectations of analysts.

We believe surprising and delighting our players is essential to our success and serves the best, long-term interests of Zynga and our stockholders. Therefore, we have made in the past and we may make in the future, significant investments or changes in strategy that we think will benefit us in the long-term, even if our decision has the potential to negatively impact our operating results in the short term. In addition, our decisions may not result in the long-term benefits that we expect, in which case the success of our games, business, financial condition or results of operations could be harmed.

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If the use of mobile devices as game platforms and the proliferation of mobile devices generally do not increase, our business could be adversely affected.

The number of people using mobile Internet-enabled devices has increased dramatically over time and we expect that this trend will continue. However, the mobile market, particularly the market for mobile games, may not grow in the way we anticipate. Our future success is substantially dependent upon the continued growth of the market for mobile games. In addition, we do not currently offer our games on all mobile devices. If the mobile devices on which our games are available decline in popularity or become obsolete faster than anticipated, we could experience a decline in bookings and revenue and may not achieve the anticipated return on our development efforts. Any such declines in the growth of the mobile market or in the use of mobile devices for games could harm our business, financial condition or results of operations. 

Our ability to acquire and maintain licenses to intellectual property may affect our revenue and profitability. Competition for these licenses may make them more expensive and increase our costs.

While most of the intellectual property we use in our games is created by us, we also acquire rights to third-party intellectual property. For example, we use licensed intellectual property as creative assets in games such as Wonka’s World of Candy, Hit It Rich! Slots, Wizard of Oz Slots and CSR Racing 2, and we are developing new games using licensed intellectual property for Game of Thrones™, Harry Potter™ and Star Wars™.

Proprietary licenses typically limit our use of intellectual property to specific uses and for specific time periods, and include other contractual obligations with which we must comply. Competition for these licenses is intense, and often results in increased advances, minimum payment guarantees and royalties that we must pay to the licensor. If we are unable to obtain and remain in compliance with the terms of these licenses or obtain additional licenses on reasonable economic terms, our revenue and profitability may be adversely impacted. In addition, use of these intellectual properties generally requires that we pay a royalty to the licensor, which decreases our profitability. If the mix of player purchases shifts towards games in which we use licensed intellectual properties increases, our overall margins may be reduced.

In addition, many of our games are built on proprietary source code of third parties, such as Unity. If we are unable to renew licenses to proprietary source code underlying our games, or the terms and conditions of these licenses change at the time of renewal our business, financial condition or results of operations could be negatively impacted.  We rely on third parties, including Unity, to maintain versions of their proprietary engines that allow us to ship our games on multiple platforms. If a third party from whom we license source code discontinues support for one or more of these platforms, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be negatively impacted.

Failure to protect or enforce our intellectual property rights or the costs involved in such enforcement could harm our business, financial condition or results of operations.

We regard the protection of our trade secrets, copyrights, trademarks, service marks, trade dress, domain names, patents, and other product rights as critical to our success. We strive to protect our intellectual property rights by relying on federal, state and common law rights, as well as contractual restrictions and business practices. We enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and contractors and confidentiality agreements with parties with whom we conduct business in order to limit access to, and disclosure and use of, our proprietary information. However, these contractual arrangements and business practices may not prevent the misappropriation of our proprietary information or deter independent development of similar technologies by others.

We pursue the registration of our copyrights, trademarks, service marks, domain names, and patents in the U.S. and in certain locations outside the U.S. This process can be expensive and time-consuming, may not always be successful depending on local laws or other circumstances, and we also may choose not to pursue registrations in every location depending on the nature of the project to which the intellectual property rights pertain. We may, over time, increase our investments in protecting our creative works.

Litigation may be necessary to enforce our intellectual property rights, protect our trade secrets or determine the validity and scope of proprietary rights claimed by others. For example, we have brought actions to protect our “Zynga Poker,” “Ville,” and “With Friends” franchises against third-party uses of those intellectual property assets and brands. Any litigation of this nature, regardless of outcome or merit, could result in substantial costs, adverse publicity, and diversion of management and technical resources, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. If we fail to maintain, protect and enhance our intellectual property rights, our business, financial condition or results of operations may be harmed.

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Our web-based games rely on Adobe Flash, and our business and operating results could be harmed if web browsers cease to support Adobe Flash and we cannot find substitute software for our web-based games.

Our web-based games currently rely on Adobe Flash, a multimedia and software platform used to show items such as videos, graphics, games and animations on websites. In July 2017, Adobe announced that it will stop updating and distributing the Adobe Flash technology at the end of 2020.  Many providers of web-browsers have also communicated roadmaps for phasing out and removing Adobe Flash from their respective web-browsers by 2020.  We are continuing to evaluate solutions to provide uninterrupted access to our web games.  If we are unable to implement these solutions in time, or measures that we take disrupt our game experience, these games may become unavailable or their audiences may further decline, which would harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are, and may in the future be, subject to intellectual property disputes, which are costly to defend and could require us to pay significant damages and could limit our ability to use certain technologies in the future.

From time to time, we have faced, and we may face in the future, allegations that we have infringed the trademarks, copyrights, patents and other intellectual property rights of third parties, including from our competitors, non-practicing entities and former employers of our personnel. Intellectual property litigation may be protracted and expensive, and the results are difficult to predict. As the result of any court judgment or settlement, we may be obligated to cancel the launch of a new game, stop offering a game or certain features of a game in a particular geographic region or worldwide, pay royalties or significant settlement costs, purchase licenses or modify our games and features, or develop substitutes.

In addition, we use open source software in our game development and expect to continue to use open source software in the future. From time to time, we may face claims from companies that incorporate open source software into their products, claiming ownership of, or demanding release of, the source code, the open source software and/or derivative works that were developed using such software, or otherwise seeking to enforce the terms of the applicable open source license. These claims could also result in litigation, require us to purchase a costly license or require us to devote additional research and development resources to change our games, any of which would have a negative effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

We are involved in legal proceedings that may result in adverse outcomes.

We are involved in claims, suits, government investigations, and proceedings arising in the ordinary course of our business, including actions with respect to intellectual property claims, privacy, data protection or law enforcement matters, tax matters, labor and employment claims, commercial and acquisition-related claims, as well as stockholder derivative actions, class action lawsuits, and other matters. Such claims, suits, government investigations, and proceedings are inherently uncertain and their results cannot be predicted with certainty. Regardless of their outcomes, such legal proceedings can have an adverse impact on us because of legal costs, diversion of management and other personnel, and other factors. In addition, it is possible that a resolution of one or more such proceedings could result in liability, penalties, or sanctions, as well as judgments, consent decrees, or orders preventing us from offering certain features, functionalities, products, or services, or requiring a change in our business practices, products or technologies, which could in the future materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. See the section titled “Legal Matters” included in Note 16 – “Commitments and Contingencies” in the notes to the consolidated financial statements included herein.

Our business is subject to a variety of U.S. and foreign laws, many of which are unsettled and still developing and which could subject us to claims or otherwise harm our business.

We are subject to a variety of laws in the U.S. and abroad that affect our business, including state and federal laws regarding consumer protection, electronic marketing, protection of minors, data protection, competition, taxation, intellectual property, export and national security, that are continuously evolving and developing. The scope and interpretation of the laws that are or may be applicable to us are often uncertain and may be conflicting, particularly laws outside the U.S. There is a risk that these laws may be interpreted in a manner that is not consistent with our current practices, and could have an adverse effect on our business. It is also likely that as our business grows and evolves and our games are played in a greater number of countries, we will become subject to laws and regulations in additional jurisdictions or other jurisdictions may claim that we are required to comply with their laws and regulations.

We are potentially subject to a number of foreign and domestic laws and regulations that affect the offering of certain types of content, such as that which depicts violence, many of which are ambiguous, still evolving and could be interpreted in ways that could harm our business or expose us to liability. In addition, there are ongoing academic, political and regulatory discussions in the U.S., Europe, Australia and other jurisdictions regarding whether social casino applications should be subject to a higher level or different type of regulation than other social game applications to protect consumers, in particular minors and persons susceptible to addiction to social casino games, and, if so, what this regulation should include. For example, a court has recently determined that a class-action plaintiff was able to state a claim that an online social casino game operated by Big Fish Games, Inc. violated a specific anti-gambling law in Washington State.  We disagree with this ruling and are continuing to monitor this case. If new social casino regulations are

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imposed, or other regulations are interpreted to apply to our social casino games, certain of (or all of) our casino-themed games may become subject to the rules and regulations and expose us to civil and criminal penalties if we do not comply. Additionally, “loot box” game mechanics have been the subject of increased public discussion – for example, Belgium and the Netherlands have recommended enforcement actions against certain companies and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has recently announced that it will be holding a public workshop on loot boxes later this year. Mechanics in certain of our games, such as Empires & Puzzles, CSR2 and Dawn of Titans, may be deemed as “loot boxes”. New regulation by the FTC, U.S. states or other international jurisdictions, which may vary significantly across jurisdictions and which we may be required to comply with, could require that these game mechanics be modified or removed from games, increase the costs of operating our games, impact player engagement and monetization or otherwise harm our business performance. It is difficult to predict how existing or new laws may be applied to these or similar game mechanics. If we are not able to comply with these laws or regulations or if we become liable under these laws or regulations, we could be directly harmed, and we may be forced to implement new measures to reduce our exposure to this liability. This may require us to expend substantial resources or to modify our games, which would harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, the increased attention focused upon liability issues as a result of lawsuits and legislative proposals could harm our reputation or otherwise impact the growth of our business. Any costs incurred as a result of this potential liability could harm our business, financial condition or results of operations.  

It is possible that a number of laws and regulations may be adopted or construed to apply to us in the U.S. and elsewhere that could restrict the online and mobile industries, including player privacy, advertising, taxation, content suitability, copyright, distribution and antitrust. Furthermore, the growth and development of electronic commerce and virtual items may prompt calls for more stringent consumer protection laws that may impose additional burdens on companies such as ours conducting business through the Internet and mobile devices. We anticipate that scrutiny and regulation of our industry will increase and we will be required to devote legal and other resources to addressing such regulation. For example, existing laws or new laws regarding the marketing of in-app purchases, labeling of free-to-play games, regulation of currency and banking institutions unclaimed property and money transmission may be interpreted to cover our games and the virtual currency, goods or payments that we receive. If that were to occur we may be required to seek licenses, authorizations or approvals from relevant regulators, the granting of which may be dependent on us meeting certain capital and other requirements and we may be subject to additional regulation and oversight, all of which could significantly increase our operating costs. Changes in current laws or regulations or the imposition of new laws and regulations in the U.S. or elsewhere regarding these activities may lessen the growth of social game services and impair our business, financial condition or results of operations.

Our international operations are subject to increased challenges and risks.

Continuing to expand our business to attract players in countries other than the U.S. is a critical element of our business strategy. An important part of targeting international markets is developing offerings that are localized and customized for the players in those markets. We expect to continue to expand our international operations in the future by opening new international studio locations and expanding our offerings in new languages. Our ability to expand our business and to attract talented employees and players in an increasing number of international markets will require considerable management attention and resources and is subject to the particular challenges of supporting a rapidly growing business in an environment of multiple languages, cultures, customs, legal systems, alternative dispute systems, regulatory systems and commercial infrastructures. We have experienced difficulties in the past and have not been successful in all the countries we have entered. Expanding our international focus may subject us to risks that we have not faced before or increase risks that we currently face, including risks associated with:

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If we are unable to manage the complexity of our global operations successfully, our business, financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected. Additionally, our ability to successfully gain market acceptance in any particular market is uncertain, and the distraction of our senior management team could harm our business, financial condition or results of operations.

The vote by the United Kingdom to exit from the European Union could harm our business, financial condition or results of operations.

On March 29, 2017, the United Kingdom triggered Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union by notifying the European Council of its intention to withdraw from the European Union (commonly referred to as the “Brexit”). Negotiations have commenced to determine the future terms of the United Kingdom’s relationship with the European Union, including the terms of trade between the U.K. and the European Union. The effects of Brexit will depend on any agreements the United Kingdom makes to retain access to European Union markets either during a transitional period or more permanently. Brexit could lead to legal uncertainty and potentially divergent national laws and regulations as the United Kingdom determines which European Union laws to replace or replicate.

The announcement of Brexit caused (and the actual exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union is expected to cause future) significant volatility in global stock markets, which could cause our stock price to be subject to wide fluctuations, and significant fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, which will affect our financial results as we report in U.S. dollars and may affect our ability to attract and retain employees in the United Kingdom. The announcement of Brexit also created (and the actual exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union may create future) global economic uncertainty, which may cause our players to reduce the amount of money they spend on our games.  The actual exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union could cause disruptions to and create uncertainty surrounding our business, including affecting our NaturalMotion operations and relationships with existing and future players, suppliers and employees.  Any of these effects of Brexit, and others we cannot anticipate, could harm our business, financial condition or results of operations.

Companies and governmental agencies may restrict access to Facebook, our website, mobile applications or the Internet generally, which could lead to the loss or slower growth of our player base.

Our players generally need to access the Internet and in particular platforms such as Facebook, Apple, Google and our website to play our games. Companies and governmental agencies could block access to Facebook, our website, mobile applications or the Internet generally for a number of reasons such as security or confidentiality concerns or regulatory reasons, or they may adopt policies that prohibit employees from accessing Facebook, Apple, Google and our website or other social platforms. If companies or governmental entities block or limit such or otherwise adopt policies restricting players from playing our games, our business could be negatively impacted and could lead to the loss or slower growth of our player base.

Changes in tax laws or tax rulings could materially affect our effective tax rates, financial position and results of operations.

The tax regimes we are subject to or operate under are unsettled and may be subject to significant change. Changes in tax laws or tax rulings, or changes in interpretations of existing laws, could cause us to be subject to additional income-based taxes and non-income taxes (such as payroll, sales, use, value-added, net worth, property, and goods and services taxes), which in turn could materially affect our financial position and results of operations. In December 2017, the U.S. federal government enacted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“2017 Tax Act”). The 2017 Tax Act significantly changed the existing U.S. corporate income tax laws by, among other things, lowering the corporate tax rate, implementing a partially territorial tax system, and imposing a one-time deemed repatriation toll tax on cumulative undistributed foreign earnings. In addition, many countries in the European Union, as well as a number of other countries and organizations such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, have recently proposed or recommended changes to existing tax laws or have enacted new laws that could impact our tax obligations. Any significant changes to

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our future effective tax rate may result in a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, or cash flows. For more information, see Note 8 – “Income Taxes” in the notes to the consolidated financial statements included herein.

We may have exposure to greater than anticipated tax liabilities.

Our income tax obligations are based in part on our corporate operating structure and intercompany arrangements, including the manner in which we develop, value, manage, and use our intellectual property and the valuation of our intercompany transactions.  The tax laws applicable to our business, including the laws of the U.S. and other jurisdictions, are subject to interpretation and certain jurisdictions are aggressively interpreting their laws in new ways in an effort to raise additional tax revenue. Our existing corporate structure and intercompany arrangements have been implemented in a manner we believe is in compliance with current prevailing tax laws. However, the taxing authorities of the jurisdictions in which we operate may challenge our methodologies for valuing developed technology or intercompany arrangements, which could impact our worldwide effective tax rate and harm our financial position and results of operations. In addition, changes to our corporate structure and intercompany agreements, including through acquisitions, could impact our worldwide effective tax rate and harm our financial position and results of operation. As a result of recent changes in tax laws, we are exploring certain changes to our international tax structure, although there can be no guarantee that any modified structure will achieve our intended goals.

We may require additional capital to meet our financial obligations and support business growth, and this capital might not be available on acceptable terms or at all.

We intend to continue to make significant investments to support our business growth and may require additional funds to respond to business challenges, including the need to develop new games and features or enhance our existing games, improve our operating infrastructure or acquire complementary businesses, personnel and technologies. Accordingly, we may need to engage in equity or debt financings to secure additional funds. If we raise additional funds through future issuances of equity or convertible debt securities, our existing stockholders could suffer significant dilution, and any new equity securities we issue could have rights, preferences and privileges superior to those of holders of our Class A common stock. Any debt financing that we secure in the future could involve restrictive covenants relating to our capital raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions. In December 2018, we entered into a credit agreement for a three-year revolving credit facility, and we must adhere to financial covenants therein. We may not be able to obtain additional financing on terms favorable to us, if at all. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us when we require it, our ability to continue to support our business growth and to respond to business challenges could be significantly impaired, and our business, financial condition or results of operations may be harmed.

We own our corporate headquarters located in San Francisco, California.  The occurrence of an earthquake or other natural disaster at or near any of our facilities could cause damage to our facilities and equipment, which could require us to curtail or cease operations.

Our principal offices are located in the San Francisco Bay Area, an area known for earthquakes, and are thus vulnerable to damage. We own our corporate headquarters and lease certain office space to commercial tenants.  All of our facilities are also vulnerable to damage from natural or manmade disasters, including power loss, fire, explosions, floods, communications failures, terrorist attacks and similar events. If any disaster were to occur, our ability to operate our business at our facilities could be impaired, we could incur significant losses, recovery from which may require substantial time and expense.

Risks Related to Our Class A Common Stock

Our share price has been and will likely continue to be volatile.

The trading price of our Class A common stock has been, and is likely to continue to be, highly volatile and could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control. During the 2018 fiscal year, the trading price of our Class A common stock ranged from a low of $3.20 per share to a high of $4.57 per share. In addition to the factors discussed in these “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this filing, factors that may cause volatility in our share price include:

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Furthermore, the stock markets have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected and continue to affect the market prices of equity securities of many companies. These fluctuations often have been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. These broad market and industry fluctuations, as well as general economic, political and market conditions such as recessions, interest rate changes or international currency fluctuations, may negatively impact the market price of our Class A common stock. In the past, companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their stock have been subject to securities class action litigation. We have been the target of this type of litigation as described in the section titled “Legal Matters” included in Note 16 —“Commitments and Contingencies” in the notes to the consolidated financial statements included herein. Securities litigation against us could result in substantial costs and divert our management’s attention from other business concerns, which could harm our business.

In addition, in November 2016, the 2016 Share Repurchase Program was authorized for up to $200.0 million of our outstanding Class A common stock. In the second quarter of 2018, we completed all purchases under the 2016 Share Repurchase Program. In April 2018, our Board of Directors authorized a share repurchase program allowing us to repurchase up to an additional $200.0 million of our outstanding shares of Class A common stock (the “2018 Share Repurchase Program”).The timing and amount of any stock repurchases will be determined based on market conditions, share price and other factors. The 2018 Share Repurchase Program does not require us to repurchase any specific number of shares of our Class A common stock, and may be modified, suspended or terminated at any time without notice. The 2018 Share Repurchase Program will be funded from existing cash on hand or other sources of financing as the Company may determine to be appropriate. Share repurchases under these authorizations may be made through a variety of methods, which may include open market purchases, privately negotiated transactions, block trades, accelerated share repurchase transactions, purchases through 10b5-1 plans or by any combination of such methods. Repurchases of our Class A common stock in the open market could result in increased volatility in our stock price. There is no guarantee that we will make any share repurchases under the 2018 Share Repurchase Program or otherwise in the future.

Certain provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law could limit attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our Board of Directors or current management and limit the market price of our Class A common stock.

Provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws may have the effect of delaying or preventing changes in our Board of Directors or management. Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws include provisions that:

These provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace members of our Board of Directors, which is responsible for appointing the members of our management. In addition, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which generally prohibits a Delaware corporation from engaging in any of a broad range of business combinations with any “interested” stockholder for a period of three years following the date on which the stockholder became an “interested” stockholder.

Our Class A common stock price may be volatile due to third-party data regarding our games.

Third parties, such as AppData, App Annie, comScore, and Sensor Tower publish daily data about us and other social game companies with respect to DAUs and MAUs, monthly revenue, top game charts, time spent per user and other information concerning social game usage. These metrics can be volatile, particularly for specific games, and in many cases do not accurately reflect the actual

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levels of usage of our games across all platforms and may not correlate to our bookings or revenue from the sale of virtual items. There is a possibility that third parties could change their methodologies for calculating these metrics in the future. To the extent that securities analysts or investors base their views of our business or prospects on such third-party data, the price of our Class A common stock may be volatile and may not reflect the performance of our business.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research about our business, or publish negative reports about our business, our share price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our Class A common stock, to some extent, depends on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about our business. We do not have any control over these analysts. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our shares or lower their opinion of our shares, our share price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which could cause our share price or trading volume to decline.

If we are unable to implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting in the future, the accuracy and timeliness of our financial reporting may be adversely affected.

If we are unable to maintain adequate internal controls for financial reporting in the future, or if our auditors are unable to express an opinion as to the effectiveness of our internal controls as required pursuant to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, investor confidence in the accuracy of our financial reports may be impacted or the market price of our Class A common stock could be negatively impacted.

The requirements of being a public company may strain our resources, divert management’s attention and affect our ability to attract and retain qualified Board members.

We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Act, the listing requirements of the NASDAQ Global Select Market and other applicable securities rules and regulations. Compliance with these rules and regulations has increased and will continue to increase our legal and financial compliance costs, make some activities more difficult, time-consuming or costly and increase demand on our systems and resources. The Exchange Act requires, among other things, that we file annual, quarterly and current reports with respect to our business and operating results.

As a result of disclosure of information in our public filings with the SEC as required of a public company, our business and financial condition have become more visible, which we believe may result in threatened or actual litigation, including by competitors and other third parties. If such claims are successful, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be harmed, and even if the claims do not result in litigation or are resolved in our favor, these claims, and the time and resources necessary to resolve them, could divert the resources of our management and harm our business, financial condition or results of operations.

We have no plans to pay dividends for the foreseeable future.

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock and do not have any plans to pay cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors. Accordingly, investors must rely on sales of their Class A common stock after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investments.

 

ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

None.

 

 

ITEM 2. PROPERTIES

We own our San Francisco, California corporate headquarters, an office building of approximately 686,000 square feet. We use approximately 318,000 square feet for our operations and lease most of the remainder to third-party tenants under leases that range in terms from month-to-month to terms through 2031. Our corporate headquarters currently accommodates our principal executive, development, engineering, marketing, business development, human resources, finance, legal, information technology and administrative activities. We are actively evaluating the potential sale and leaseback of this office building. If favorable offers are received and we determine to proceed with the transaction, it is possible that such transaction could take place as early as the second quarter of 2019.

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We lease additional domestic office space in San Francisco, California; Santa Clara, California; Carlsbad, California; Culver City, California; Eugene, Oregon; Austin, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; and New York, New York. We lease offices for our foreign operations in Toronto, Canada; Victoria, Canada; Bangalore, India; Dublin, Ireland; Helsinki, Finland; Istanbul, Turkey; Brighton, England; and London, England. These additional domestic and international facilities total approximately 196,000 square feet, excluding properties for which we cannot reliably estimate square footage. The excluded properties include shared corporate office spaces whereby rent is determined based on the number of individuals utilizing the space over a specified period of time.

We believe that our existing facilities are sufficient for our current needs. We believe that suitable additional or substitute space will be available as needed to accommodate changes in our operations.

 

 

ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

For a description of our material legal proceedings, see the section titled “Legal Matters’ included in Note 16 —“Commitments and Contingencies” in the notes to the consolidated financial statements, which is incorporated by reference herein.

 

 

ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

Not applicable.

 

 

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PART II

 

 

ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

Our Class A common stock has been listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “ZNGA” since December 16, 2011. Prior to that time, there was no public market for our stock. Further, in May 2018, all of our outstanding shares of Class B and Class C common stock were converted into shares of Class A common stock on a one-for-one basis.  

Holders of Record

Many of our shares of Class A common stock are held by brokers and other institutions on behalf of our stockholders and accordingly, we are unable to estimate the total number of stockholders represented by these record holders. Excluding such brokers and institutions, as of January 31, 2019, there were approximately 594 stockholders of record of our Class A common stock and the closing price of our Class A common stock was $4.48 per share as reported on the NASDAQ Global Select Market.

Dividend Policy

We have never declared or paid any cash dividend on our Class A common stock. We intend to retain any future earnings and do not expect to pay dividends in the foreseeable future.

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

In November 2016, we authorized the 2016 Share Repurchase Program. During 2016, we repurchased 12.3 million shares of our Class A common stock under the 2016 Share Repurchase Program at a weighted average price of $2.76 per share for a total of $34.2 million. During 2017, we repurchased 36.3 million shares of our Class A common stock under the 2016 Share Repurchase Program at a weighted average price of $2.78 per share for a total of $101.0 million. During 2018, we completed the 2016 Share Repurchase Program by repurchasing 18.2 million shares of our Class A common stock at a weighted average price of $3.59 per share for a total of $65.4 million.

In April 2018, a new share repurchase program was authorized for up to $200.0 million of our outstanding Class A common stock. During 2018, we repurchased 7.1 million shares of our Class A common stock under the 2018 Share Repurchase Program at a weighted average price of $3.71 per share for a total of $26.2 million.

Repurchases of our Class A common stock during the fourth quarter of 2018, all of which were made pursuant to the 2018 Share Repurchase Program, were as follows:

 

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Stock Performance Graph

The following graph compares the cumulative total stockholder return for our Class A common stock, the Standard and Poor’s 500 Stock Index (the “S&P 500 Index”) and the NASDAQ Composite Index. The measurement points in the graph below are December 16, 2011 (the first trading day of our Class A common stock on the NASDAQ Global Select Market) and the last trading day of each fiscal year-end through December 31, 2018 . The graph assumes that $100 was invested on December 16, 2011 in our Class A common stock, the S&P 500 Index and the NASDAQ Composite Index. As we have not paid any dividends, our cumulative total return calculation is based solely upon stock price appreciation and not upon reinvestment of any dividends. The stock price performance on the following graph is not necessarily indicative of future stock price performance.

 

 

 

The information furnished under the heading “Stock Performance Graph”, including the performance graph, shall not be deemed “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Exchange Act or otherwise subject to the liabilities of that section, nor shall it be deemed incorporated by reference into any other filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended or the Exchange Act, except as expressly set forth by specific reference in such a filing.

 

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ITEM 6. SELECTED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL AND OTHER DATA

The following selected consolidated financial and other data should be read in conjunction with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our audited consolidated financial statements and related notes, which are included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The consolidated statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016 as well as the consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2018 and 2017 are derived from the audited consolidated financial statements that are included in Item 8 – Financial Statements and Supplementary Data in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The consolidated statement of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 as well as the consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014, are derived from audited consolidated financial statements that are not included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected in the future.

 

 

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Stock-based compensation expense included in the consolidated statements of operations data above was as follows (in thousands):

 

 

 

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Bookings

To provide investors with additional information about our financial results, we disclose bookings within this Annual Report on Form 10-K, a non-GAAP financial measure. We have provided below a reconciliation between bookings and revenue, the most directly comparable U.S. GAAP financial measure.

Bookings is a non-GAAP financial measure that is equal to revenue recognized plus or minus the change in deferred revenue during the period. We record the sale of virtual items as deferred revenue and then recognize that revenue over the estimated average playing period of payers or as the virtual items are consumed. Advertising sales consisting of certain branded virtual items and sponsorships are also initially recorded to deferred revenue and then recognized ratably over the estimated life of the branded virtual item, similar to online game revenue, or over the term of the advertising arrangement, depending on the nature of the agreement. For additional discussion of the estimated average life of durable virtual items, see the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Revenue Recognition” elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

We use bookings as one measure to evaluate the results of our operations, generate future operating plans and assess the performance of our company. While we believe that this non-GAAP financial measure is useful in evaluating our business, this information should be considered as supplemental in nature and is not intended to be considered in isolation of, as a substitute for, or as superior to, revenue recognized in accordance with U.S. GAAP. In addition, other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate bookings differently or not at all, which reduces its usefulness as a comparative measure.

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The following table is a reconciliation of revenue to bookings for each of the periods presented (in thousands):

 

 

Limitations of Bookings

Key limitations of bookings are:

Because of these limitations, you should consider bookings along with other financial performance measures, including revenue, net income (loss) and our other financial results presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

 

 

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ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

You should read the following discussion of our financial condition and results of operations in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that reflect our plans, estimates and beliefs. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to these differences include those discussed below and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, particularly in “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors.” The forward-looking statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are made only as of the date hereof.

Overview

We are a leading provider of social game services with approximately 88 million average MAUs during 2018. We develop, market and operate social games as live services played on mobile platforms, such as iOS and Android, and social networking sites such as Facebook. Generally, all of our games are free to play, and we generate substantially all of our revenue through the sale of in-game virtual items (“online game revenue”) and advertising services (“advertising revenue”).

We are a pioneer and innovator of social games and a leader in making “play” a core activity on mobile devices and social networking sites. Our objective is to become the worldwide leader in play by connecting the world through games.

Consistent with our free-to-play business model, a small portion of our players have historically been payers. Because the opportunity for social interactions increases as the number of players increases, we believe that maintaining and growing our overall number of players, including the number of players who may not purchase virtual items, is important to the success of our business. As a result, we believe that the number of players who choose to purchase virtual items will continue to constitute a small portion of our overall players.

Our top three online game revenue-generating games historically have contributed to a significant portion of our revenue, though the games that represent our top three online game revenue-generating games vary over time. Our top three online game revenue-generating games accounted for 45%, 45% and 44% of our online game revenue in 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively. In 2018, our top three online game revenue-generating games were Zynga Poker, CSR Racing 2 and Hit It Rich! Slots. With respect to advertising and other revenue, our Words with Friends games generated a substantial portion of our advertising and other revenue in 2018, 2017 and 2016.  

Small Giant Games Acquisition

On December 20, 2018, the Company executed a Share Sale and Purchase Agreement (the “Agreement”) with the shareholders and option holders of Small Giant Games Oy (“Small Giant”), a Finnish company, pursuant to which, effective January 1, 2019, Zynga (i) acquired 80% of all issued and outstanding share capital (including all rights to acquire share capital) of Small Giant in exchange for consideration of $594.5 million of which (a) $333.6 million was paid in cash, (b) $30.0 million was deposited into an escrow account for a period of 18 months as security for general representations and warranties and (c) the remaining $230.9 million was satisfied by the issue of 63,794,746 shares of Zynga Class A common stock, based on the average closing price of Zynga’s Class A common stock during the 30 trading days immediately preceding the date of the Agreement, and (ii) will acquire the remaining 20% of the Small Giant shares ratably for additional cash consideration during each of the three years following the closing (the “Step-In Period”), payable annually based upon the achievement of specified profitability metrics by Small Giant, with no maximum limit as to the cash consideration achievable. Following the end of the Step-In Period, Small Giant will be a direct, wholly-owned subsidiary of Zynga. Our interest in Small Giant will be consolidated into our financial information beginning in 2019.

As discussed below under “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Factors Affecting Our Performance” and “Critical Accounting Policies—Revenue Recognition” mobile online game revenue is recognized ratably over the estimated average playing period of payers while platform fees are expensed as incurred. Accordingly, bookings from Small Giant’s Empires & Puzzles will initially be deferred and recognized into revenue ratably over the estimated average playing period of payers – which we expect will result in a significant increase in deferred revenue in 2019.

How We Generate Revenue

We operate our social games as live services that allow players to play for free. We generate revenue primarily from the sale of in-game virtual items and advertising services. Revenue growth will continue to depend largely on our ability to attract and retain players and more effectively monetize our player base through the sale of in-game virtual items and advertising. We intend to do this through the launch of new games, enhancements to current games and expansion into new markets and distribution platforms.

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Online game. We provide our players with the opportunity to purchase virtual items that enhance their game-playing experience. We believe players choose to pay for virtual items for the same reasons they are willing to pay for other forms of entertainment – they enjoy the additional playing time or added convenience, the ability to personalize their own game boards, the satisfaction of leveling up, and the opportunity for sharing creative expressions. We believe players are more likely to purchase virtual items when they are connected to and playing with their friends, whether those friends play for free or also purchase virtual items. Players may also elect to pay a one-time download fee to obtain certain mobile games free of third-party advertisements.

In 2018, our business continued generating a higher percentage of revenue and bookings through mobile platforms than through the Facebook platform. In 2018, we estimate that 51%, 38% and 9% of our revenue and 51%, 39% and 8% of our bookings were generated on Apple, Google and Facebook platforms, respectively, while in 2017, we estimate that 51%, 33% and 12% of our revenue and 51%, 34% and 11% of our bookings were generated on Apple, Google and Facebook platforms, respectively. This information is estimated because certain payment methods we accept and certain advertising networks do not allow us to determine the platform used.

On platforms other than Facebook, players purchase our virtual items through various widely accepted payment methods offered in the games, including Apple iTunes accounts, Google Play accounts, PayPal and credit cards. For all payment transactions in our games under Facebook’s local currency-based payments program, Facebook remits to us an amount equal to 70% of the price we requested to be charged to our player.

In addition, we also incur licensing fees related to the use of intellectual property within our games and our operating margins can be affected by the mix of player purchases from games in which we own the intellectual property as compared to games in which we license certain intellectual properties. For example, we use licensed intellectual property as creative assets in games such as Wonka’s World of Candy, Hit It Rich! Slots, Wizard of Oz Slots and CSR Racing 2, and we are developing new games using licensed intellectual property for Game of Thrones™, Harry Potter™ and Star Wars™. While overall bookings within these games will benefit our revenue, a shift in the mix of our revenue towards such games using licensed intellectual property could decrease our operating margins.

Advertising and other. Advertising revenue primarily includes mobile and display ads, engagement ads and offers and branded virtual items and sponsorships. Other revenue primarily consists of royalties received from the licensing of our brands.

Key Metrics

We regularly review a number of metrics, including the following key financial and operating metrics, to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends in our business, prepare financial projections and make strategic decisions.

Key Financial Metrics

Revenue and Bookings. Bookings is a non-GAAP financial measure that is equal to revenue recognized plus or minus the change in deferred revenue during the period. We record the sale of virtual items as deferred revenue and then recognize that revenue over the estimated average playing period of payers or as the virtual items are consumed. Advertising sales consisting of certain branded virtual items and sponsorships are also initially recorded to deferred revenue and then recognized ratably over the estimated life of the branded virtual item, similar to online game revenue, or over the term of the advertising arrangement, depending on the nature of the agreement. Bookings is a fundamental top-line metric we use to manage our business, as we believe it is a useful indicator of the sales activity in a given period. Over the long-term, the factors impacting our revenue and bookings are the same. However, in the short term, there are factors that may cause revenue to exceed or be less than bookings in any period.  

We use revenue and bookings to evaluate the results of our operations, generate future operating plans and assess the performance of our company. While we believe that bookings are useful in evaluating our business, but this information should be considered as supplemental in nature and is not intended to be considered in isolation of, as a substitute for, or as superior to, revenue recognized in accordance with U.S. GAAP. In addition, other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate bookings differently or not at all, which reduces its usefulness as a comparative measure.

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Key Operating Metrics

We manage our business by tracking several operating metrics: “DAUs,” which measure daily active users of our games, “MAUs,” which measure monthly active users of our games, “MUUs,” which measure monthly unique users of our games, “MUPs,” which measure monthly unique payers in our games, and “ABPU,” which measures our average daily bookings per average DAU, each of which is recorded by our internal analytics systems. The numbers for these operating metrics are calculated using internal company data based on tracking of user account activity. We also use information provided by third parties, including third party network logins provided by platform providers, to help us track whether a player logged in under two or more different user accounts is the same individual. We believe that the amounts are reasonable estimates of our user base for the applicable period of measurement; however, factors relating to user activity and systems may impact these numbers.

DAUs. We define DAUs as the number of individuals who played one of our games during a particular day. Under this metric, an individual who plays two different games on the same day is counted as two DAUs. We use information provided by third parties to help us identify individuals who play the same game to reduce this duplication. However, because we do not always have the third party network login data to link an individual who has played under multiple user accounts, a player may be counted as multiple DAUs. Average DAUs for a particular period is the average of the DAUs for each day during that period. We use DAUs as a measure of audience engagement.

MAUs. We define MAUs as the number of individuals who played one of our games in the 30-day period ending with the measurement date. Under this metric, an individual who plays two different games in the same 30-day period is counted as two MAUs. We use information provided by third parties to help us identify individuals who play the same game to reduce this duplication. However, because we do not always have the third party network login data to link an individual who has played under multiple user accounts, a player may be counted as multiple MAUs. Average MAUs for a particular period is the average of the MAUs at each month-end during that period. We use MAUs as a measure of total game audience size.

MUUs. We define MUUs as the number of individuals who played one or more of our games, which we were able to verify were played by the same individual in the 30-day period ending with the measurement date. An individual who plays more than one of our games in a given 30-day period would be counted as a single MUU to the extent we can verify that the games were played by the same individual. However, because we do not always have the third party network login data necessary to link an individual who has paid under multiple user accounts in a given 30-day period, an individual may be counted as multiple MUUs. Because many of our players play more than one game in a given 30-day period, MUUs are always equal to or lower than MAUs in any given time period. Average MUUs for a particular period is the average of the MUUs at each month end during that period. We use MUUs as a measure of total audience reach across our network of games.

MUPs. We define MUPs as the number of individuals who made a payment at least once during the applicable 30-day period through a payment method for which we can quantify the number of individuals, including payers from certain mobile games. MUPs does not include individuals who use certain payment methods for which we cannot quantify the number of unique payers. However, because we do not always have the third party network login data necessary to link an individual who has paid under multiple user accounts in a 30-day period, a player who has paid using multiple user accounts may be counted as multiple MUPs. MUPs are presented as an average of the three months in the applicable quarter. We use MUPs as a measure of the number of individuals who made payments across our network of games during a 30-day period.

ABPU. We define ABPU as our total bookings in a given period, divided by the number of days in that period, divided by the average DAUs during the period. We believe that ABPU provides useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our results in the same manner as management. We use ABPU as a measure of overall monetization across all of our players through the sale of virtual items and advertising.

Our business model for our social games is designed so that, as there are more players that play our games, social interactions increase and the more valuable our games and our business become. All engaged players of our games help drive our bookings and, consequently, both online game revenue and advertising revenue. Virtual items are purchased by players who are socializing with, competing against or collaborating with other players, most of whom do not buy virtual items. Accordingly, we primarily focus on bookings, DAUs, MAUs, MUUs, MUPs and ABPU, which together we believe best reflect key audience metrics.

 

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The table below shows average DAUs, MAUs, MUUs, MUPs and ABPU for the last eight quarters: 

 

 

 

Further, Zynga Poker web DAUs and MAUs reported for the fourth quarter of 2018 – which are a component of total company DAUs and MAUs – represent the average of player activity for October and November only. We have excluded December due to an increased volume of apparent player activity that we were unable to reliably validate and de-duplicate. These challenges are particularly present in our web-based games, which are becoming an increasingly smaller portion of our overall operations and financial results, as these games are more susceptible than mobile platforms from attempts to replicate legitimate player activity.

 

 

2018 Audience Activity

 

Average DAUs and MAUs increased sequentially in the first quarter of 2018 primarily due to the contribution from the casual card games acquired in December 2017. Average DAUs decreased in the second quarter of 2018, primarily from Words with Friends, Solitaire and Zynga Poker, offset by the contribution from Merge Dragons!, which was acquired from Gram Games in May 2018, while average MAUs decreased primarily from our Facebook Instant Games, Solitaire, Words with Friends, our CSR Racing games and our casual card games, offset by the contribution from Merge Dragons!. Average DAUs decreased in the third quarter of 2018, primarily from Zynga Poker and Words with Friends, offset by the contribution from Merge Dragons!, while average MAUs decreased primarily from our Facebook Instant Games, Solitaire and Words with Friends, offset by the contribution from Merge Dragons!. Average DAUs were flat in the fourth quarter, while average MAUs decreased from Merge Dragons!, Words with Friends and Solitaire, offset by the contribution from new Facebook Instant Games and Wonka's World of Candy, which launched during the fourth quarter.

 

Average MUUs increased sequentially in the first quarter of 2018 primarily from an increase in users from Words With Friends, while average MUUs increased in the second quarter of 2018 primarily from an increase in users from Zynga Poker. Average MUUs were relatively flat during the third quarter of 2018. Average MUUs decreased during the fourth quarter of 2018 primarily due to a decline in users from Words With Friends and Zynga Poker. Average MUPs were relatively consistent throughout 2018.

 

Fluctuations in ABPU are a function of changes in bookings and average DAUs, relative to one another. For example, ABPU increased during the fourth quarter of 2018 as bookings increased faster than average DAUs.

 

2017 Audience Activity

 

During the second quarter of 2017, average DAUs were flat sequentially, while average MAUs increased due to the contribution from our Facebook Instant Games, in addition to strong performance from Solitaire and Words With Friends. Average DAUs and MAUs were flat in the third quarter of 2017. Average DAUs and MAUs increased in the fourth quarter of 2017 primarily due to the contribution from the casual card games acquired in December 2017, in addition to strong performance from Words With Friends.

 

Average MUUs decreased sequentially in the second, third and fourth quarters of 2017, primarily driven by a decline in users from FarmVille 2 and our Social Slots games. Average MUPs were relatively consistent throughout 2017.

 

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Other Metrics

Although our management primarily focuses on the operating metrics above, we also monitor periodic trends in our paying players of our games. The table below shows average monthly unique payer bookings, average MUPs and unique payer bookings per unique payer for the last eight quarters: