Zynga Settles With Former Employee Over Allegations of Theft of Trade Secrets

Zynga has reached a settlement around a lawsuit last year that accused a former general manager of “wholesale theft” of the company’s trade secrets after he left for rival social gaming startup Kixeye.

Alan Patmore was the general manager of one of Zynga’s most lucrative titles, Cityville. But Kixeye poached him to become vice president of product in September of 2012.

About a month later, Zynga filed a complaint against Patmore saying that he stored more than 760 documents from his work computer in Dropbox before his last day. The company said these files contained design documents for unreleased titles, future monetization plans and compensation information on employees. They later added Kixeye as a defendant.

Patmore said in a statement today: “I accept responsibility for making a serious mistake by copying and taking Zynga confidential information when I resigned from Zynga. I understand the consequences of my actions and I sincerely apologize to Zynga and my former colleagues.”

Both companies would not disclose whether there was a cash component to this settlement. They issued a joint statement: “Zynga Inc. and KIXEYE Inc. have reached a mutually agreeable settlement of their litigation involving Alan Patmore in San Francisco Superior Court.”