Zynga announced plans on Thursday to lay off approximately 314 employees, or about 15 per cent of its workforce, as part of wider cost-cutting measures.

The social gaming giant said it expects the sweeping redundancy plan could generate savings of as much as $35 million in 2014. Zynga did not specify where these jobs will be culled - the company is headquartered in San Francisco but has studios and support centers across the US, UK, India, and China.

Zynga also announced that it will spend $527 million to purchase NaturalMotion. The privately held firm created successful mobile games CSR Racing and Clumsy Ninja, but is also behind the Euphoria human physics engine licensed for games like Grand Theft Auto V and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

"We are committed to refining our skills in the art and science of building new hit games and in 2014, we will move aggressively into new genres that align with the timeless, entertainment categories that consumers care about," Zynga CEO Don Mattrick said in a release.

"Our market is growing as measured by device, audience and dollars and we have the privilege to compete in one of the fastest growing parts of the entertainment industry."

Mattrick left his position as head of Microsoft's Xbox division in July to take over Zynga, which had struggled to regain its footing after a lengthy stretch of poor performance and executive departures.

From ~http://www.computerandvideogames.com/447574/zynga-to-lay-off-more-than-300-buy-gta-5-physics-firm/

Job layoffs are common these days (have been for 6 years now!) but i just find this just damn insulting. How can you possibly layoff so many people to "save costs" and at the same buy a company? Someones telling lies I think. It's like American companies do anything to get hate. It's hardly surprising with Don "let them play Xbox 360" Mattrick as CEO though. It's just a careless, immoral and contradictory decision as far as i'm concerned. The company can't be struggling if it can't afford to buy a company for half a billion dollars!!!

I posted about this yesterday
http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=177347

Sorry i didn't know.

It's easy, you layoff the studios/developers that make you lose money, and purchase companies that you believe will make you earn money. If the studios laid off were more productive, I'm sure they would still have a job. No company lives of the air, they need to earn money to exist.

They can buy a company whenever but to do it when you lay off people is just insulting to them. 

Companies aren't charities.

Companies should stop lying to people and taken responsibilty for their actions. They clearly weren't responsible by doing that. 

So, it sounds like they are going to try to generate revenue by licensing?

So not making games, but licensing.

Sad for the people laid off too.