Yesterday, Zynga announced a big write-off and told Wall Street its growth was slowing. Today, Wall Street returned the favor by crushing Zynga shares, forcing them down 12 percent to $2.48. Analysts say Zynga could still recover. It remains a leader in the casual-gaming industry, with more than 300 million monthly users, and as of July 30, it held a decent financial cushion in the form of $436 million in cash and equivalents on hand -- a good chunk of the $1 billion it raised in its IPO late last year. It's starting to look like Zynga's going to need it. Zynga claims its latest problems mostly stem from delays in some new games and what it termed "reduced expectations" for games such as The Ville. Read between the lines of the memo to employees that CEO and co-founder Mark Pincus penned yesterday, though, and it seems clear that the same rapid shift to mobile that hammered Facebook has also done a number on Zynga. And that's just one of several big challenges for the company. Zynga faces multiple lawsuits accusing it or its executives of copyright infringement and insider trading. It has spent money like crazy, too. Yesterday, Zynga also revealed its plans to write off nearly half of the $210 million it paid for game maker OMGPOP, which was riding high thanks to its Pictionary-like game Draw Something. Zynga, unfortunately, bought OMGPOP just as Draw Something crested; its user numbers have cratered. Since Zynga went public, last December, at $10 a share, the company's stock has fallen more than 75 percent.
