Zynga plans to sell off its San Francisco HQ, local blog SFist reports. The company purchased the building (pictured) for 228 million in 2012.
The tech boom has dramatically increased the building’s value since that time, according to San Francisco Bay Area real estate blog The Registry — that’s $340 per square foot, and office buildings in SF now regularly exceed $800 per square foot.
Since founder Mark Pincus stepped back into the CEO role almost a year ago, the company has gone through a number of changes; it’s also regularly been losing money as it pivots to mobile. Clearly, the plan is to generate some cash and channel it into more important things than maintaining a flagship building in a hot San Francisco district.
Fun fact: Prior to Zynga, the building served as Sega’s U.S. headquarters — notably during the Dreamcast era. You can see a nice (and nostalgic) picture of it here.
Update: A Zynga spokesperson has reached out to Gamasutra to clarify the sale: the company is “exploring opportunities” toward a sale, with hopes to generate cash — but lease space in the building back from the eventual purchaser on a long-term basis. The company does not have plans to leave the building.
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2016