News broke late yesterday that Lance Tokuda is stepping down from his role as chief executive of social game- and app-maker RockYou. Coming barely more than a month after the company announced substantial layoffs, we started wondering where RockYou is headed. So I got on the phone with chief operating officer Lisa Marino to find out.
Marino emphasized that both Tokudaa4a4s decision (he will remain at RockYou working on a4Ainnovation and strategic initiativesa4) and the layoffs were part of a larger reorganization at RockYou as it focuses on social games. The company was already making games, such as Zoo World, but Marino said it was doing too many other things &8212' if you asked people in the industry what RockYou did, youa4a4d get a4Aa mixed bag of answers.a4
So RockYou laid off part of its workforce (it never said how much), hired new employees with what Marino called a4Athe right DNA to build the good gamesa4 (such as former EA executive Jonathan Knight), and in the last month alone, it shut down more than 50 applications. RockYou has become a4Aa really different place,a4 Marino said.
And wea4a4ll see the fruits of this new focus in the next few months, she added, as RockYou unveils new products that will make it a4Avery relevanta4 in the social games industry.
When I asked how RockYou hopes to stand out against giants like Zynga, Marino said the company isna4a4t just a game-maker. Yes, it&'s focused on making games, but it&'s also a4Aa social entertainment companya4. Therea4a4s a media and advertising side to RockYoua4a4s business, which it uses to make money from its own games (so ita4a4s not just tied to virtual goods) and to help other developers do the same.
a4AThis was an aggressive move and a proactive move,a4 Marino said. a4AWea4a4ve got a lot of money in the bank.a4
Revenue is still strong, she added, with RockYou set to make more money in the fourth quarter of 2010 than it did in Q3 or Q2 (but not as much as Q1).
RockYou has raised $127 million in funding, so if its investors (including Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners) want to see a healthy return, theya4a4ll need a bigger exit than rival Slidea4a4s $228 million acquisition by Google.
Tokudaa4a4s departure from the CEO role fit into that restructuring, Marino said, and it also came from his realization that as the company grows, it will need a a4Abeen here, done thata4 CEO with more experience growing organizations. For now, Marino and the rest of the current executive team are managing RockYou while the company searches for a replacement.
a4ABecause the management team is doing well, we have the luxury of being patient to find the right candidate,a4 she said.
[Photo of Lance Tokuda at the Facebook Developer Garage via Flickr/Niall Kennedy]
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Companies: RockYou
People: Lance Tokuda, Lisa Marino
Companies: RockYou
People: Lance Tokuda, Lisa Marino
Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.
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