I know that employment is at-will in California, but you can still sue for wrongful termination in some cases.

Could this be happening in this case?

I read the beginning of this page (http://www.ca-employment-lawyers.com/Wrongful-Termination.ht...) and it seems to depend highly on the contracts and employee handbook that Zynga have.

In any case, you would think that this should make hiring talents more difficult…