SAN FRANCISCO — Before becoming Zynga’s new CEO earlier this month, Don Mattrick tried to buy the company when he was head of Microsoft’s Xbox division, according to a published report.
Mattrick and Zynga founder and CEO Mark Pincus started negotiating a possible acquisition by Microsoft in 2010, Bloomberg reported, citing anonymous sources “with knowledge of the matter.”
The talks later fell apart, but Mattrick and Pincus stayed in touch. In March, the relationship got more serious as the two started going on bike rides together and discussing potential opportunities for Mattrick at Pincus’ company.
Microsoft’s effort to buy Zynga wasn’t previously disclosed. The purpose of the purchase would have been to boost the Xbox’s game lineup at a time when Microsoft’s game console was vying with Nintendo’s Wii, which was known for its casual games, for leadership of the gaming market.
Zynga and Microsoft representatives declined to comment on the report or confirm its details.
San Francisco-based Zynga announced this month that Mattrick would replace Pincus as its CEO. In the past two years, Zynga has struggled with disappointing earnings, declining popularity of its Facebook games, the departure of numerous executives, at last two rounds of mass layoffs, a plunging stock price and, most recently, falling sales.
Mattrick comes to the company after leading Microsoft’s games division from being a chronically unprofitable business to one that is making money and leading the U.S. market in sales. Before that, he served as president at Electronic Arts (ERTS).
In 2007, the same year he joined Microsoft, Mattrick and some other former EA employees founded BigPark, which specialized in free casual games for the Web. Two years later, Microsoft purchased BigPark.
Contact Troy Wolverton at 408-840-4285. Follow him at Twitter.com/troywolv.
