John Schappert, Zynga COO, Resigns | Hacker News Reader

John Schappert, Zynga COO, Resigns

edgar.sec.gov

88 pointsbryanh23 comments

Schappert successfully dumped (at least) $3.9 million in stock earlier this year. Last week he was stripped of responsibility for overseeing new games. Sounds like as good a time as any to leave.

http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/01/zynga-more-lawuits-coo-dem...

Yup, probably got to keep half of it after taxes, and of course once you're no longer an insider it becomes easier to sell any remaining holdings without triggering SEC rules.

I think he is still named in a couple of the class action suits though, so its not like he will have a lot of free time. I am morbidly curious about how lawyer's fees are handled. Normally if you're being sued in connection with something you did for the company, the company hires a lawyer to represent you, but how does that work if you're not working the company any more?

Logically it would seem that the company would provide counsel because at the time of the alleged incident you were conducting business for the company. This is all laymen speculation of course. Any lawyers around?

Odds are good he held the stock for more than a year and a day.

Well this reference [1] says that Schappert started at Zynga April 21st of 2011, and this reference [2] puts that secondary offering where he sold $3.9 million in stock at March 23rd, 2012. That is about a month shorter than a full year.

Am I missing something?

[1] http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/21/another-ea-exec-jumps-ship-...

[2] http://venturebeat.com/2012/07/31/first-zynga-stock-sell-off...

Weird. his last day at EA was april 25. [1]

I would guess he got the stock when he accepted the offer from zygna, not his first day.

Of course, maybe you're right, and he makes million dollar mistakes like like that all the time. If that's the case, good for zygna for getting rid of him.

[1] http://investor.ea.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=1193125-11-108...

It's not a mistake to sell the stock as quickly as you can if you anticipate a massive drop in the stock price. Which as an insider, you're in a position to do.

Let's see, stock price went from $13 to $3, so yes, he's way ahead, even if he pays more taxes.

True and since the pre-planned sale was at $12 and the current price is $3, assuming the stock scaled the same his $3.9M payday would have been a $975K payday, $480K after taxes. Quite the difference.

And of course if you were one of those folks who were forced to give back options [1] before the IPO, you are probably pretty pissed off.

[1] http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-57322150-17/zynga-to-emplo...

I'm not a lawyer, but the way I've seen it play out is that the company will usually represent the person if they're co-defendants. Unless his interests and the company's diverge at some point, in which case he will want get his own counsel.

I have seen the company pay a former employee's separate legal costs, although I don't know how rare that is.

Half of it? Is he not in the US? Isn't US capital gains tax 15%? Surely that means he kept 85% after taxes.

He held it less than a year, it is ordinary income, so 38% to the fed and 11% to the state (49% total) and with that amount of income on the adjusted gross income line he gets no deductions.

If I only got to keep 2 million of my four, I'd cry all the way the bank. Thanks for the correction. I don't do Schedule D stuff anymore, so I'm not hip to the lingo.

And not even two weeks ago he was talking up Zynga's prospects in the wake of their horrendous last quarter: http://allthingsd.com/20120727/zyngas-john-schappert-talks-u...

Anyone know if this language in the 8-K is essentially boilerplate? "The Company further noted that Mr. Schappert leaves as a friend of the Company and it wishes him all the best."

Standard stuff. Not a good idea to burn bridges on your way out as it harms future prospects.

Yes that is standard. It should be illegal. They said his resignation, effective immediately, had nothing to do with any disagreement over company operations. It had everything to do with that. He was probably fired or quit in anger over his demotion, due to his (perceived) poor performance.

How they can get away with lying to the SEC and their investors like that boggles the mind - but it is how every company handles it. Firings are all resignations and they never have anything to do with the company or the former employees job performance. Everybody leaves as friends that have the upmost respect for one another and can't wait to work together again blah blah they just want to spend time with their kids. That they just drove their company into the ground is a complete coincidence.

"Effective immediately" is common for VP and CxO level positions. Remember Marissa Mayer quit Google and started at Yahoo! the next day.

You're right though that "everybody is still friends" is boiler plate and doesn't actually mean anything. Especially given how horribly Zynga is doing right now, it seem unlikely that things are going great for the CxOs.

Don't worry, they have an exact clone of him ready to step in.

Oddly, the clone is modeled after a COO from another company.

Schappert was also mentioned in the EA lawsuit. He was COO of EA before he left for Zynga, and according to the filing, "Mr. Shappert was then the most senior executive responsible for EA's online social gaming business. The online social gaming business divisions reported directly to Mr. Schappert, and he was directly responsible for designing and implementing EA's competitive strategies in the market. As such, Mr. Schappert had detailed, internal strategic plans and development information related to EA's effort to bring The Sims franchise to Facebook with The Sims Social."

He used to talk exclusively to my boobs. good riddance.

Ugh.

I hate the "bros" that inhabit many startup companies these days.

Coincidentally, I started receding spam from OMGPOP today.

I simply replied: "F*ck Zynga"

I simply replied: "Fck Zynga"

If you want to block out offensive words, you should be writing "Fuck Z*nga".

Reply on news.ycombinator.com