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Zynga departures now an exodus

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- There's a brain drain among Zynga Inc.'s executives, with their departures looking more like a stampede.

On Monday, just after the social-gaming company launched its new and improved "FarmVille 2," Zynga disclosed the departure another top executive, its chief marketing officer. This is the second executive exit deemed important enough to be disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission since Zynga's (ZNGA) disappointing earnings in July, one more in a growing number of departures. Read more about Zynga's latest executive to leave.

On top of that, the technology blog GigaOm reported on Sunday that the company is also losing its chief infrastructure officer, Allan Leinwand, citing his LinkedIn page. Leinwand's LinkedIn profile states that he is now a vice president and chief technology officer of ServiceNow, a pre-IPO company.

Investors are now asking themselves whether these executives are taking advantage of the hiring binge in Silicon Valley, now that Zynga's stock price has tumbled more than 75% in the last several months. The worse-case scenario is that they have deeper concerns about the company's future and strategy, including its plans to expand beyond Facebook. Read Rex on Tech about Zynga's departures.

Either way, many investors don't seem to be sitting around to find out.