You can now pay Mark Pincus’s salary with a single $1 microtransaction in one of his social games.
Zynga chief executive Mark Pincus imposed a pay cut that will drop his annual salary to $1, according to an SEC filing first spotted by Games Industry International. The company founder also requested that the board exempt him from any bonus or equity awards.
This move shouldn’t curb Pincus’s daily spending habits by any significant amount. The executive is worth $800 million, according to Bloomberg.
Zynga’s other top-level officers, however, won’t be taking cuts. Each makes at least $425,000 before target bonus levels of 100 percent of their annual salary.
Pincus’s pay cut should show the board and shareholders that he is serious about getting the stock price up. The game maker’s shares are down to $3.60 (NASDAQ:ZNGA) from $12.13 this time last year.
Over the last 12 months, Zynga has experienced an exodus of talent. Nearly a dozen important managers and officers have left the studio, including its chief operating officer, John Schappert, and chief marketing officer, Jeff Karp.
Despite the turnover, speculators are positive about Zynga following the news that it launched its first real-money gambling games in the United Kingdom. This is a potentially huge source of revenue for the company. Zynga has long worked toward laying the foundation for this move to regulate gambling.