King Co-Founder Riccardo Zacconi to step down as Studio CEO
King CEO Riccardo Zacconi will step down on July 1. He has been in office for more than 16 years.
Ricardo Zacconi
Activision Blizzard announced the upcoming dismissal of Zakconi on its website.
From the position of CEO of King, he will move to the post of chairman of the board of directors.
Zacconi not only headed King, but was also its co-founder. It was founded in 2003. In 2016, it was acquired by Activision Blizzard for $5.9 billion.
In fact, King is a company of one IP Candy Crush, although there are dozens of projects in its portfolio — not so profitable. However, since the takeover of King, the popularity of Candy Crush has decreased, according to the Financial Times.
King also has a more global problem — the gradual decline of the MAU common to all projects. In three years, it collapsed to 272 million people, while in the fourth quarter of 2015 it reached 449 million people. Although in the first quarter of 2019, it became clear that the situation had turned, and the recession turned into stable growth.
We add that Activision Blizzard has announced a radical restructuring. Over the past six months, the reshuffle in the leadership of its divisions has ceased to be something new. In addition, in February, it announced that it would cut 800 employees
. The layoffs also affected King.
