Don Mattrick Was “Front Runner” for Position of EA CEO

Former Xbox boss Don Mattrick left Microsoft to join Zynga as its new CEO in a move most of us found surprising but still quite appropriate, given the criticism Mattrick has been under since the Xbox One reveal. However, Wedbush Securities’ analyst Michael Pachter revealed that Mattrick was a “front-runner” for the job of CEO at Electronic Arts, which has been vacant since John Riccitiello stepped down

“EA presents a different challenge from Zynga, with over 4x the revenue and significantly higher profitability, and we think that the company is largely on the right track already. We were surprised that Mr. Mattrick took the Zynga job. We believed that the larger company presented a more prestigious opportunity.

“Now that Mr. Mattrick has taken the job at Zynga, EA is back to square one in its search. We believe that the company will find few qualified candidates outside the company, and will ultimately choose between the top two internal candidates, COO Peter Moore and EVP Frank Gibeau. Both men are capable of running EA, in our opinion, and investors would respond favorably to either being appointed.”

As for how Mattrick will fit in at Zynga, Pachter stated that, “Mr. Mattrick has the skills and experience required to manage a large organization, and we believe he will right-size Zynga staffing levels in order to allow the company to become profitable almost immediately.”