Mobile App Monetization Network Tapjoy Restructures Top Management, With Some Layoffs

Zynga wasn’t the only company that had major layoffs this week.

Tapjoy, which has been an advertising and monetization backbone for many mobile gaming companies across the entire industry, also is going through a round of restructuring, according to multiple sources connected to the company. While Tapjoy wouldn’t disclose the number of layoffs, we hear that it’s more than 20 people, which could be close to 10 percent of the company’s headcount.

Tapjoy has weathered many changes on both the Facebook platform and Android and iOS throughout the years. It used to be known as Offerpal and was a leading offers provider for social games until Facebook put in tougher restrictions around the practice. Through the acquisition of a small mobile app install company called Tapjoy, they shifted to iOS until Apple banned the practice of incentivizing gamers to download apps in exchange for virtual currency. Eventually, they turned into a pay-per-install ad network where developers could spend to get new users through rich ad units.

Here’s Tapjoy’s vice president of global communications, Patrick Seybold, on the restructuring:

We have made changes in our organization to position the company for continued growth. Following the appointment of new executive leadership and a thorough assessment of our Product and Engineering teams, we have decided to re-organize these departments. Jeff Drobick, our CPO, is now in an expanded role and will oversee our Product and Engineering organizations end-to-end. Sean Lindsay, who had been running Tapjoy’s Boston engineering office, is now VP, Engineering for the company, reporting to Jeff.

In conjunction with these appointments, the company is also re-organizing its engineering organization. The changes are intended to address velocity of getting products to market, product quality and scaling the company’s core infrastructure for continued growth.

In addition, there have been some reductions across the company to better align our organization with our business plan and strategic direction. We believe these moves will make us more competitive, productive and will enhance our ability to bring innovative products to market.

The company has gone through several executive level changes over the past year, with the entire management team turning over. After former CEO Mihir Shah stepped down in November, a longtime Disney executive Steve Wadsworth stepped in. Other executives including Claire Hough, who had been senior vice president of engineering since last year, and Al Wood, who was brought in as CFO when the company had been even considering an IPO, have recently stepped down.