Overview and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies (Policies)

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2018

The accompanying interim consolidated financial statements are presented in accordance with United States generally accepted accounting principles (“U.S. GAAP”). The consolidated financial statements include the operations of the Company and its wholly owned subsidiaries. All significant intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated in the consolidation.

The accompanying interim consolidated financial statements and these related notes should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and related notes included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017.

Unaudited Interim Financial Information

The accompanying interim consolidated balance sheets as of June 30, 2018 and December 31, 2017, the interim consolidated statements of operations and statements of comprehensive income (loss) for the three and six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017, the statements of cash flows for the six months ended June 30, 2018 and the notes to interim consolidated financial statements are unaudited. These unaudited interim consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. In management’s opinion, the unaudited interim consolidated financial statements include all adjustments of a normal recurring nature necessary for the fair presentation of the Company’s statement of financial position and operating results for the periods presented. The results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2018 are not necessarily indicative of the results expected for the full fiscal year or any other future period.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts in the interim consolidated financial statements and notes thereto. Significant estimates and assumptions reflected in the financial statements include, but are not limited to, the estimated average playing period of payers that we use for revenue recognition, useful lives of property and equipment and intangible assets, accrued liabilities, income taxes, the fair value of assets and liabilities acquired through business combinations, contingent consideration obligations, stock-based compensation expense and evaluation of recoverability of goodwill, intangible assets, and long-lived assets. Actual results could differ materially from those estimates.

For the three and six months ended June 30, 2018, we recognized $0.5 million and $0.9 million of online game revenue and income from operations from games that have been discontinued as there is no further performance obligation. This change in estimate did not impact our reported earnings per share in three months ended June 30, 2018 but had a $0.01 per share impact on our reported earnings per share in the six months ended June 30, 2018. For the three and six months ended June 30, 2017, there were no discontinued games that required adjusting the recognition period of deferred revenue generated in prior periods. Further, for the three and six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017, there were no changes in our estimated average playing period of payers of durable virtual items that required adjusting the recognition period of deferred revenue generated in prior periods.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

Issued But Not Yet Adopted

In February 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2016-02, “Leases (Topic 842),” which requires a lessee to recognize assets and liabilities on the balance sheet for leases with lease terms greater than 12 months, using a modified retrospective transition method. For lessors, accounting for leases will remain substantially the same as in prior periods. The standard is effective in the first quarter of 2019 and early adoption is permitted. In July 2018, the FASB issued ASU 2018-11, “Leases (Topic 842) – Targeted Improvements,” which provides an alternative transition approach allowing companies to initially apply the new leases standard by recognizing a cumulative-effect adjustment on adoption date. The Company is currently evaluating which transition approach it will elect.

The Company will adopt on January 1, 2019 and expects adoption of this new standard to increase reported assets and liabilities, specifically with respect to leased office facilities, at a minimum. We are, however, continuing to assess the full impact on our consolidated financial statements, which includes changes to our processes and controls and review of existing lease arrangements.

Issued And Adopted

In May 2014, the FASB issued ASU 2014-09, “Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606),” which requires revenue to be recognized when promised goods or services are transferred to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration that is expected to be received for those goods or services. ASU 2014-09 (“ASC Topic 606”) supersedes the existing revenue recognition guidance and is effective for interim and annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2017. We adopted ASC Topic 606 on January 1, 2018 using the modified retrospective transition approach. Refer to Note 2 – “Revenue from Contracts with Customers” for further details on the impact from adoption.

In August 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-15, “Statement of Cash Flows (Topic 230): Classification of Certain Cash Receipts and Cash Payments,” which provides guidance on specific topics related to how certain cash receipts and cash payments are classified in the statement of cash flows. Later, in November 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-18, “Statement of Cash Flows (Topic 230): Restricted Cash,” which requires companies to include amounts generally described as restricted cash and restricted cash equivalents in cash and cash equivalents when reconciling beginning-of-period and end-of-period total amounts shown on the statement of cash flows. Our restricted cash primarily consists of funds held in escrow in accordance with the terms of our business acquisition agreements. The restrictions release based upon the satisfaction of required milestones or lapse of defined time periods. Both standards are effective for interim and annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2017. On January 1, 2018, we adopted both standards using the retrospective transition approach and there was no impact upon adoption of ASU 2016-15.

As a result of adopting ASU 2016-18, the primary impact to the consolidated statement of cash flows relates to cash flows provided by (used in) investing and financing activities. Specifically, our business acquisitions typically involve restricted cash held in escrow at the date of acquisition which is later released. These transactions are now reflected in investing activities. Further, certain acquisition related contingent consideration payments involve restricted cash, the payment of which is reflected in financing activities.

In January 2017, the FASB issued ASU 2017-01, “Business Combinations (Topic 805) Clarifying the Definition of a Business,” which clarifies the definition of a business to assist entities with evaluating whether transactions should be accounted for as acquisitions (or disposals) of assets or businesses. The definition of a business affects many areas of accounting including acquisitions, disposals, goodwill and consolidation. The standard is effective for interim and annual periods beginning after December 15, 2017. On January 1, 2018, we adopted the standard using the prospective transition approach, with no financial statement impact upon adoption. Moving forward, the impact of this ASU will be fact dependent, but we expect that some transactions that were previously accounted for as business combinations or disposal transactions will be accounted for as asset purchases or asset sales under the ASU.

Revenue Recognition

Note: Refer to Note 1 of our consolidated financial statements contained in our previously-filed Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 for our revenue recognition accounting policy as it relates to revenue transactions prior to January 1, 2018. The revenue recognition accounting policy described below relates to revenue transactions from January 1, 2018 and onward, which are accounted for in accordance with ASC Topic 606.

We primarily derive revenue from the sale of virtual items associated with our online games and the sale of advertising.

Online Game. We operate our games as live services that allow players to play for free. Within these games however, players can purchase virtual currency to obtain virtual goods or virtual goods directly (together, defined as “virtual items”) to enhance their game-playing experience. Our identified performance obligation is to display the virtual items within the game over the estimated life of the paying player or until it is consumed in game play based upon the nature of the virtual item. Payment is required at time of purchase and the purchase price is a fixed amount.

Players can purchase our virtual items through various widely accepted payment methods offered in the games, including Apple iTunes accounts, Google Play accounts, Facebook local currency payments, PayPal and credit cards. Payments from players for virtual items are non-refundable and relate to non-cancellable contracts that specify our obligations. Such payments are initially recorded to deferred revenue.

For revenue earned through mobile platforms, the transaction price is equal to the gross amount we request to be charged to our player because we are the principal in the transaction. We expense the related platform and payment processing fees as cost of revenue in the period incurred.

For revenue earned on our web based games through Facebook, our players utilize Facebook’s local currency-based payments program to purchase virtual items in our games. For all payment transactions on the Facebook platform, Facebook remits to us 70% of the price we request to be charged to the player for each transaction, which represents the transaction price. Despite being the principal in the transaction, we recognize revenue net of the amounts retained by Facebook for platform and payment processing fees because Facebook may choose to alter our requested price, for example by offering a discount or other incentives to players playing on their platform, and we do not receive information from Facebook indicating the amount of such discounts or incentives or the actual amount paid by our players. Accordingly, we are unable to determine the gross amount paid by our players on the Facebook platform.

The satisfaction of our performance obligation is dependent on the nature of the virtual item purchased and as a result, we categorize our virtual items as either consumable or durable.

•

Consumable virtual items represent goods that can be consumed by a specific player action. Common characteristics of consumable virtual items may include items that are no longer displayed on the player’s game board after a short period of time, do not provide the player any continuing benefit following consumption, or often times enable a player to perform an in-game action immediately (e.g. chips in Zynga Poker). For the sale of consumable virtual items, we recognize revenue as the items are consumed (i.e., over time), which approximates one month.

•

Durable virtual items represent items that are accessible to the player over an extended period of time (e.g. animals in Farmville 2). We recognize revenue from the sale of durable virtual items ratably over the estimated average playing period of payers for the applicable game (i.e., over time), which represents our best estimate of the average life of the durable virtual item.

•

If we do not have the ability to differentiate between revenue attributable to consumable virtual items versus durable virtual items for a specific game, we recognize revenue ratably over the estimated average playing period of payers for the applicable game.

Historically, we have had sufficient data to separately account for consumable and durable virtual items for substantially all of our web games. However, for our standalone mobile games, we do not have the requisite data to separately account for consumable and durable virtual items and therefore recognize mobile revenue ratably over the estimated average playing period of payers.

We expect that in future periods, there will be changes in the mix of consumable and durable virtual items offered and sold, reduced virtual item sales in some existing games, changes in estimates of the average playing period of payers and/or changes in our ability to make such estimates. When such changes occur, and in particular if more of our revenue in any period is derived from durable virtual items or the estimated average playing period of payers increases on average, the amount of revenue that we recognize in a current or future period may be reduced, perhaps significantly. Conversely, if the estimated average playing period of payers decreases on average, the amount of revenue that we recognize in a current or future period may be accelerated, perhaps significantly.

On a quarterly basis, we determine the estimated average playing period of payers by game beginning at the time of a payer’s first purchase in the respective game and ending on a date when that paying player is deemed to be no longer playing. To determine when paying players are no longer playing a given game, we analyze monthly cohorts of payers who made their first in-game payment between six and 18 months prior to the beginning of each quarter and determine whether each payer within the cohort is an active or inactive player as of the date of our analysis. To determine which payers are inactive, we analyze the dates that each payer last logged into that game. We determine a payer to be inactive once they have reached a period of inactivity for which it is probable that they will not return to a specific game. For the payers deemed inactive as of our analysis date, we analyze the dates they last logged into that game to determine the rate at which inactive payers stopped playing. Based on these dates, we then project a date at which all payers for each monthly cohort are expected to cease playing our games. We then average the time periods from first purchase date and the date the last payer is expected to cease playing the game for each of the monthly cohorts to determine the total playing period of payers for that game. To determine the estimated average playing period of payers, we then divide this total period by two. The use of this “average” approach is supported by our observations that payers typically become inactive at a relatively consistent rate for our games. If future data indicates payers do not become inactive at a relatively consistent rate, we will modify our calculations accordingly. When a new game is launched and only a limited period of payer data is available for our analysis, then we also consider other factors to determine the estimated average playing period of payers, such as the estimated average playing period of payers for other recently launched games with similar characteristics.

Advertising. We have contractual relationships with advertising networks, agencies, advertising brokers and directly with advertisers for advertisements in our games. For all advertising arrangements, we are the principal and our performance obligation is to provide the inventory for advertisements to be displayed in our games. For contracts made directly with advertisers, we are also obligated to serve the advertisements in our games. However, for those direct advertising arrangements, providing the advertising inventory and serving the advertisement is considered a single performance obligation, as the advertiser cannot benefit from the advertising space without its advertisements being displayed.

For advertising transactions not placed directly with the advertiser, the transaction price is equal to the amount collected, which is generally based on our revenue share stated in the contract for the advertising inventory.

The pricing and terms for all our advertising arrangements are governed by either a master contract or insertion order and generally stipulate payment terms as a specific number of days subsequent to the end of the month, generally ranging from 30 to 60 days. The transaction price in advertising arrangements is generally the product of the number of advertising units delivered (e.g., impressions, offers completed, videos viewed, etc.) and the contractually agreed upon price per advertising unit. The number of advertising units delivered is determined at the end of each month, which resolves any uncertainty in the transaction price during the reporting period.

For a limited number of advertising network arrangements, the transaction price is determined based on a volume-tiered pricing structure, whereby the price per advertising unit in a given month is determined by the number of impressions delivered in that month. However, the number of impressions delivered is resolved at the end of each month, therefore, eliminating any uncertainty with respect to the price per advertising unit for each reporting period.

For in-game display ads, in-game offers, engagement advertisements and other advertisements, our performance obligation is satisfied over the life of contract (i.e., over time), with revenue being recognized as advertising units are delivered.

For in-game sponsorships with branded virtual items, revenue is initially recorded to deferred revenue and then recognized ratably over the estimated life of the branded virtual item, similar to online game revenue, or over the term of the advertising arrangement, depending on the nature of the agreement.

Arrangements with Multiple Performance Obligations. For arrangements with multiple performance obligations, we allocate the transaction price to each performance obligation in an amount that depicts the amount of consideration to which we expect to be entitled in exchange for satisfying each performance obligation, which is based on the standalone selling price. The standalone selling price represents the observable price which we would sell the advertising placement separately in a similar circumstance, to a similar customer.

Taxes Collected from Customers. We present taxes collected from customers and remitted to governmental authorities on a net basis within our consolidated statement of operations.

With respect to the PuzzleSocial acquisition, we estimated the acquisition date fair value of the contingent consideration obligation using discounted cash flow models, and applied a discount rate that appropriately captured a market participant’s view of the risk associated with the respective obligation. The significant unobservable inputs used in the fair value measurement of the acquisition-related contingent consideration obligation were forecasted future cash flows, the timing of those cash flows and the risk-adjusted discount rate. During the second quarter of 2017, it was determined the future performance would not meet the required performance targets. As of June 30, 2018, we continue to expect that the future performance will not meet the required performance targets for the acquisition. Accordingly, the estimated contingent consideration obligation remains at zero as of June 30, 2018.

Under the terms of the Gram Games acquisition, contingent consideration may be payable based on the achievement of certain future performance targets during each annual period following the acquisition date for a total of three years, with no maximum limit as to the contingent consideration achievable. We estimated the acquisition date fair value of the contingent consideration obligation using a Monte Carlo simulation. The significant unobservable inputs used in the fair value measurement of the contingent consideration obligation were Gram Games’ projected performance, risk-adjusted discount rate and performance volatility similar to industry peers. Changes to projected performance of the acquired business could result in a higher or lower contingent consideration obligation in the future. At acquisition, the estimated fair value of the contingent consideration obligation was $43.5 million. However, as of June 30, 2018, the estimated fair value of the contingent consideration obligation increased to $45.0 million due to the increased probability of achievement, resulting in $1.5 million of expense recognized within research and development expense in our consolidated statement of operations for the three and six months ended June 30, 2018.

Fair Value Measurements Investment

We estimate fair value as the exit price, which represents the amount that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between knowledgeable and willing market participants.

The valuation techniques used to measure the fair value of the Company’s financial instruments, all of which have counterparties with high credit ratings, were valued based on quoted market prices or model-driven valuations using significant inputs derived from or corroborated by observable market data. We use a three-tier value hierarchy, which prioritizes the inputs used in measuring fair value as follows:

Level 1 — Observable inputs that reflect quoted prices (unadjusted) for identical assets or liabilities in active markets.

Level 2 — Includes inputs, other than Level 1 inputs, that are directly or indirectly observable in the marketplace.

Level 3 — Unobservable inputs that are supported by little or no market activity.

Earnings Per Share

On May 2, 2018, our founder, Mark Pincus, elected to convert certain outstanding shares of Class B common stock and all outstanding shares of Class C common stock controlled by Mr. Pincus and an affiliated investment entity into an equivalent number of shares of Class A common stock. As a result of Mr. Pincus’ conversion, the remaining shares of Class B common stock represented less than 10% of the total voting power of all Zynga stockholders and, accordingly, each remaining outstanding share of Class B common stock automatically converted into one share of Class A common stock. Each Zynga stockholder now has one vote per share on all matters subject to stockholder vote. Following the conversion, no shares of Class B or Class C common stock are outstanding and the total number of authorized shares of capital stock will be reduced to account for the elimination of the Class B and Class C common stock. Accordingly, beginning in the second quarter of 2018, the Company calculated basic and dilutive net income (loss) per share under a single-class method.

Prior to the conversion noted above, we computed net income (loss) per share of common stock using the two-class method required for participating securities and multiple classes of common stock. Prior to the date of the initial public offering, we considered all series of our convertible preferred stock to be participating securities due to their non-cumulative dividend rights. Additionally, we considered shares issued upon the early exercise of options subject to repurchase and unvested restricted shares to be participating securities, because the holders of such shares have non-forfeitable dividend rights in the event we declare a dividend for common shares. In accordance with the two-class method, net income allocated to these participating securities, which include participation rights in undistributed net income, is subtracted from net income (loss) to determine total net income (loss) to be allocated to common stockholders.

Basic net income (loss) per share is computed by dividing net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders by the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding during the period. Diluted net income (loss) per share is computed by dividing net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders by the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding, including potential dilutive securities. In computing diluted net income (loss) per share, net income (loss) attributable to common shareholders is re-allocated to reflect the potential impact of dilutive securities, including stock options, unvested ZSUs, unvested performance-based ZSUs and ESPP withholdings. For periods in which we have generated a net loss or there is no income attributable to common stockholders, we do not include dilutive securities in our calculation of diluted net income (loss) per share, as the impact of these awards is anti-dilutive.

Leases Income

agreement provides for total minimum rental payments of $167.3 million with escalating rent payments and various lease incentives to be straight-lined over the lease term

Legal Contingencies

The Company is involved in legal and regulatory proceedings on an ongoing basis. Some of these proceedings are in early stages and may seek an indeterminate amount of damages. If the Company believes that a loss arising from such matters is probable and can be reasonably estimated, the Company accrues the estimated liability in its financial statements. If only a range of estimated losses can be determined, the Company accrues an amount within the range that, in its judgment, reflects the most likely outcome; if none of the estimates within that range is a better estimate than any other amount, the Company accrues the low end of the range. For proceedings in which an unfavorable outcome is reasonably possible but not probable and an estimate of the loss or range of losses arising from the proceeding can be made, the Company discloses such an estimate, if material. If such a loss or range of losses is not reasonably estimable, the Company discloses that fact. In assessing the materiality of a proceeding, the Company evaluates, among other factors, the amount of monetary damages claimed, as well as the potential impact of non-monetary remedies sought by plaintiffs that may require changes to business practices in a manner that could have a material adverse impact on the Company’s business.

Legal expenses

Legal expenses are recognized as incurred.