Bobby Kotick Still Insanely Grateful At Continued Existence And Business Practices Of Mark Pincus

In case earlier stories about the Facebook game maker didn't turn Mark Pincus into enough of a moustache-twirling villain from a silent movie, this Wall Street Journal story should finish the job adeptly.

Citing industry sources, The Wall Street Journal reported today that Zynga CEO Mark Pincus, along with his top executives, decided last year as they were preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) that they had given out too much stock to employees. But rather than accept that reality, the executives reportedly tried a different tactic: demand employees give back not-yet-vested stock or face termination.

In order to determine which employees would be asked to give stock back, Pincus and his executives tried to pinpoint workers whose contributions to Zynga--in the execs' eyes--didn't necessarily justify the potential cash windfall they could receive when the company went public, the Journal claims.

Or on the other hand, maybe Pincus was doing his guys a solid by, uh, taking away their options.

But this isn't Major League Baseball, where the Boston Red Sox are stuck paying Carl Crawford $20 million per year even if he proves no better than a backup. It's a non-unionized startup, where the CEO is well within his rights to simply fire an under-performing employee (and recover unvested options). In fact, that's what happens at most companies. The difference at Zynga is that Pincus seems intent on retaining talent, even if that talent either didn't live up to initial expectations or didn't adequately match up to the changing needs of a fast-growing company.

Yeah, I don't think so.