SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - In the past twelve months, Zynga Inc has struggled with a contracting player base, a deflated stock price and waves of layoffs. Now it is coming to terms with downsized ambitions.

As Chief Executive Mark Pincus, 47, leads the online games developer he founded in 2007 through perhaps the most crucial year of his tenure, he is pushing to restore revenues by doubling down on "FarmVille," the franchise that took Facebook users by storm four years ago and launched Zynga to stardom.

Though some industry observers had declared farm simulation games a fad and predicted FarmVille 2's early demise, the sequel to Zynga's best-known title has defied expectations at its San Francisco headquarters, Pincus said in an interview. FarmVille 2 has clung to its perch near the top of Facebook charts and the number of people who play the game each day still hovers near all-time highs of 8 million, even six months after launch.

Given a glaring weakness in mobile games, however, one of Zynga's current priorities is porting FarmVille 2 to mobile devices so players can move from PCs to smartphones and back without losing their data. That presented technical challenges that the company is ironing out, Pincus said.

"The ideal is to make that one seamless experience between Web and mobile so you can take your farming experience from work to home," Pincus said. "We're having to retool and reinvent around our process and technology."

Pincus badly needs a reliable hit franchise. In the past nine months, Zynga has shuttered 20 titles and closed offices in Baltimore, Boston and Tokyo. It has trimmed 5 percent of its workforce, though its headcount of nearly 3,000 still dwarfs that of fierce rivals like Supercell, a Finnish company with 100 people that claims an equivalent amount of revenue, or the 600-strong Rovio, the publisher behind the "Angry Birds" games.

Gone is the swagger that defined the early years, when Zynga's army of developers flooded the market with dozens of new titles from cooking games to bingo variations, its dealmakers splashed money to snap up smaller rivals, and its managers opened studios in cities around the world.

Wall Street is viewing Pincus' shift with cautious approval, having been singed by Zynga's abysmal stock performance an 80 percent decline over the past year that began around the time it invested $180 million in then-promising game studio OMGPOP.

"Certainly their shareholder base wants to see more discipline," said Sean McGowan, an analyst at Needham and Co. "When you have limited resources, it makes sense to start with a proven winner, then expand that franchise. But it needs to be a blend of sticking with the proven brands and realizing when people might say: 'FarmVille 4? No, I'm done with that.'"

Investors place much stock on Zynga's future prospects in Internet gambling, because of its massive poker-playing community and existing game software. But with meaningful income from real-money casino efforts likely to be months, if not years, away, it may have to risk "sequelitis" for now.

TABLES TURNED

Almost 18 months after going public, Zynga is staving off fierce competition from newer or nimbler rivals that mimic its games.

Supercell, founded in 2010, has scored with "Hay Day," an iPad game that contains elements resembling FarmVille. With just one other game under its belt, Supercell says it is on track to make more than $800 million in revenue this year, roughly equal to the $860 million that Wall Street expects from Zynga in 2013.

Veteran video games publisher Electronic Arts Inc, one of Zynga's earliest rivals, in recent weeks said it would lay off an undisclosed number of employees and focus on core franchises like Battlefield and sports titles.

Activision Blizzard Inc, another publishing heavyweight, has fared better thanks to the strength of series like "Call of Duty," which has brought in more than $8 billion in cumulative sales since the first title launched in 2003. Yet even Activision is struggling to sustain revenue growth.

Zynga's bottom-line could be shored up through a more streamlined pipeline, Pincus argued. Since FarmVille first launched, it has gradually honed its development process to reduce the resources and development costs required for each significant update by more than 80 percent, he said.

"As long as our players are interested in farming, we'll offer a Farmville," Pincus said. "It could be the Seinfeld of our era in gaming, a multi-season show that has a quality and a consistency that you can rely on."

Zynga declined to address its game pipeline. Bing Gordon, an investor at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and a Zynga board member, said he has repeatedly nudged the company to develop FarmVille 3.

"Coca Cola has learned not to change their formula," said Gordon, a game industry veteran who formerly served as chief creative officer at Electronic Arts. "If you've got something people want, keep doing it."

BOLD BEATS

Even as Zynga seeks greater efficiency, it acknowledges it has been pressed to invest more to stay competitive.

At the heart of the company's strategy has been its "bold beat" schedule, a roadmap first laid out by Pincus in 2009 to release significant upgrades and new features to games every quarter to keep players hooked.

Once criticized in the industry for low-quality graphics and rudimentary gameplay, the company's latest launches and "bold beats" have placed a greater emphasis on elements like visuals that were once considered superfluous, game designers said.

"Player expectations are higher than they used to be," said Zynga Senior Vice President Todd Arnold, who oversees FarmVille and FarmVille 2. "You're not able to launch a minimalist product as we used to be able to."

For its leading franchises, the company is also investing more in quantitative and analytical tools. Every week, it shuttles players into a room deep inside its offices, where they are shown minute new design features. Their reactions are recorded by video cameras as well as a team of game designers sitting behind a two-way mirror in an adjacent room.

The company also holds periodic panel discussions with its most loyal fans to solicit suggestions for new features.

Linda Zoccoli, a retired daycare business owner in Moraga, California, suggested at a session in March that water was too scarce a commodity in FarmVille 2. Weeks later, she noticed the game began to feature periodic rainfall.

She has spent three hours almost daily for the past eight months tending her plot but hasn't found it repetitive.

"As long as they come out with new quests, new items, it keeps it interesting," she said.

(This story was fixed to correct spelling in paragraph 22 to oversees instead of overseas, corrects spelling in paragraph 25 to Zoccoli instead of Zoccolli)

(Reporting by Gerry Shih; Editing by Edwin Chan, Jonathan Weber and Chris Reese)

Iran, the Mideast peace process, counterterrorism and trade are other likely topics for Monday's meeting.

The U.S. and Russia agreed last week to arrange an international conference to bring representatives of the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad and the opposition to the negotiating table. There is no date yet, but such talks would focus on setting up a transitional government.

Cameron said after a meeting last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin that they both agreed that "we must help drive this process."

The British leader also said Britain, the U.S., Russia and other countries should take part in setting up a transitional government.

Separately last week, the Obama administration announced it will provide $100 million in new aid to Syria, strictly for humanitarian relief for Syrian refugees and not linked to any possible decision on arming the rebels who seek to topple Assad from power.

Total U.S. humanitarian assistance in the war, now in its third year, will surpass $500 million.

The Obama administration has said it is considering providing weapons to vetted units in the armed opposition, among other military options, following the recent revelation of a U.S. intelligence assessment that suggested chemical weapons use by the Assad regime.

Obama has said use of such weapons would cross a "red line."

The president and Cameron also will review priorities for the Group of Eight summit. Cameron will preside over the June 17-18 gathering in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland. The White House said Friday that Obama would stop in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, before joining the summit.

The visit will be Obama's first to Northern Ireland.

Organizations were singled out because they included the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their applications for tax-exempt status, said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups.

In some cases, groups were asked for their list of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said.

"That was wrong. That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive and it was inappropriate. That's not how we go about selecting cases for further review," Lerner said at a conference sponsored by the American Bar Association.

"The IRS would like to apologize for that," she added.

Lerner said the practice was initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati and was not motivated by political bias. After her talk, she told The AP that no high level IRS officials knew about the practice.

Agency officials found out about the practice last year and moved to correct it, the IRS said in a statement. The statement did not specify when officials found out.

About 75 groups were inappropriately targeted. None had their tax-exempt status revoked, Lerner said.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky called on the White House to investigate.

"Today's acknowledgement by the Obama administration that the IRS did in fact target conservative groups in the heat of last year's national election is not enough," McConnell said. "I call on the White House to conduct a transparent, government-wide review aimed at assuring the American people that these thuggish practices are not under way at the IRS or elsewhere in the administration against anyone, regardless of their political views."

Many conservative groups complained during the election that they were being harassed by the IRS. They accused the agency of frustrating their attempts to become tax exempt by sending them lengthy, intrusive questionnaires.

The forms, which the groups made available at the time, sought information about group members' political activities, including details of their postings on social networking websites and about family members.

Certain tax-exempt charitable groups can conduct political activities but it cannot be their primary activity.

IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told Congress in March 2012 that the IRS was not targeting groups based on their political views.

"There's absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back and forth that happens to people" who apply for tax-exempt status, Shulman told a House Ways and Means subcommittee.

Shulman was appointed by President George W. Bush. His 6-year term ended in November. President Barack Obama has yet to nominate a successor. The agency is now being run by acting Commissioner Steven Miller.

"The Ways and Means Committee has persistently pushed the IRS to explain why it appeared to be unfairly targeting some political groups over others a charge they repeatedly denied," said Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., chairman of the Ways and Means oversight subcommittee.

"The IRS's 'too little too late' response is unacceptable, and I will continue to work to ensure there are protections in place so no American, regardless of political affiliation, has their right to free speech threatened by the IRS," Boustany said.

Tea Party groups were livid on Friday.

"I don't think there's any question we were unfairly targeted," said Tom Zawistowski, who until recently was president of the Ohio Liberty Coalition, an alliance of tea party groups in the state.

Zawistowski's group was among many conservative organizations that battled the IRS over what they saw as its discriminatory treatment of their effort to gain non-profit status. The group first applied for non-profit status in June 2009, and it was finally granted on Dec. 7, 2012, he said one month after Election Day.

During the 2012 election, many tea party groups applied for tax-exempt status under section 501 (c) (4) of the federal tax code, which grants tax-exempt status to social welfare groups. Unlike other charitable groups, these organizations are allowed to participate in political activities but their primary activity must be social welfare.

That determination is up to the IRS.

Lerner said the number of groups filing for this tax-exempt status more than doubled from 2010 to 2012, to more than 3,400. To handle the influx, the IRS centralized its review of these applications in an office in Cincinnati.

Lerner said this was done to develop expertise among staffers and consistency in their reviews. As part of the review, staffers look for signs that groups are participating in political activity. If so, IRS agents take a closer look to make sure that politics isn't the group's primary activity, Lerner said.

As part of this process, agents in Cincinnati came up with a list of things to look for in an application. As part of the list, they included the words, "tea party" and "patriot," Lerner said.

"It's the line people that did it without talking to managers," Lerner. "They're IRS workers, they're revenue agents."

In all, about 300 groups were singled out for additional review, Lerner said. Of those, about a quarter were singled out because they had "tea party" or "patriot" somewhere in their applications.

The IRS statement said that once applications were chosen for review, they all "received the same, even-handed treatment."

Lerner said 150 of the cases have been closed and no group had its tax-exempt status revoked, though some withdrew their applications.

"Mistakes were made initially, but they were in no way due to any political or partisan rationale," the IRS said in a statement. "We fixed the situation last year and have made significant progress in moving the centralized cases through our system."

Marcus S. Owens, who spent a decade leading the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations, said Friday that it made sense that the problem arose among workers in Cincinnati because the agency "really has delegated a lot of authority" to local offices to make decisions about handling their workload.

But Tea Party groups weren't buying the idea that the decision to target them was solely the responsibility of low-level IRS workers.

"It is suspicious that the activity of these 'low-level workers' was unknown to IRS leadership at the time it occurred," said Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, which describes itself as the nation's largest tea party organization. "President Obama must also apologize for his administration ignoring repeated complaints by these broad grassroots organizations of harassment by the IRS in 2012, and make concrete and transparent steps today to ensure this never happens again."

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Associated Press reporters Alan Fram and Steve Peoples in Boston contributed to this report.

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Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

One difference is that there are a lot more laughs in Levenson's comedy thanks to a well-tuned cast led by Reed Birney. Author of "The Language of Trees," Levenson perceptively captures a suffocating workplace vibe, which Carolyn Cantor's smart direction brings humorously to life for a brief run on the very intimate Ars Nova stage.

Levenson finds laughter or telling moments while conveying the uncomfortable or awkward, often-wordless moments that can ensue during forced proximity of team-building events with colleagues. These are carefully paced by Cantor ("The Great God Pan" and "After the Revolution") for maximum impact, including the timing of frequent breaks during the retreat.

Birney ("Picnic" on Broadway, "Uncle Vanya" at Soho Rep), plays beleaguered Richard, the owner of a small, struggling travel agency who still naively believes in teamwork and loyalty.

Richard is blithely unaware of the dissatisfaction secretly churning among his longtime staff as he takes them through a low-budget, unpaid, weekend team-building retreat in the office conference room while he desperately tries to figure out how to deal with the shattered travel marketplace.

Part of Birney's talent and appeal is the way he makes his Everyman seem so natural. Richard's vulnerability resonates and builds throughout his cheerful and generally ineffectual staff coaching, as when Birney slowly and visibly deflates after one staffer thoughtlessly turns a feel-good exercise into a negative contemplation.

Susan Kelechi Watson wears an often superior air as senior salesperson Nancy, who challenges much of what Richard says and is downright rude, in amusingly staged ways. Erin Wilhelmi is a shimmering mess of trembling nerves and sweetly naive enthusiasm as the shy new office assistant, Eliot. Wilhelmi seems fragile, but gives a strong performance as Eliot increasingly panics about getting no actual training for her new sales job.

Paul Thureen rounds out the cast as seemingly doltish office and website manager Todd, with Thureen playing up Todd's earnest ineffectuality until he unleashes some surprising moxie.

While each character eventually shares personal dissatisfactions, some communication misreads lead to a terrible personal misunderstanding that completely changes the team dynamics.

Despite numerous setbacks, Richard may salvage a glimmer of hope for the future of his company if Eliot gets inspired enough by his team spirit to move beyond rearranging water bottles.

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Online: http://arsnovanyc.com

When Islamic fighters drove into a town in northeast Nigeria on Tuesday, they used anti-aircraft guns, mounted on the backs of trucks, to destroy nearly every landmark of the nation's federal government. Fighters also rode in on at least one bus, the military said, while in other assaults insurgents have fired rocket-propelled grenades.

The militarization of Islamic radicals in the north comes after witnesses saw Nigerian fighters mingle with the extremists who took over northern Mali in the weeks following a coup there. It also comes after fighters seized massive troves of Nigerian military equipment and have received access to arms smuggled out of the lawlessness of Libya.

Those new arms, and the willingness of extremists to use them, highlight the increasing instability in Nigeria's north and ever-growing dangers facing the nation's weak central government.

"Each year, they grow in prominence and sophistication," said David Zounmenou, an analyst at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, South Africa. "That's what's making the fighting that much more difficult for the Nigerian security forces."

Tuesday, the sophistication of the fighters, likely from the extremist network known as Boko Haram, could be seen in their assault on Bama, a town some 65 kilometers (40 miles) southeast of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state. The military said some 200 fighters in buses and pickup trucks lay siege to the town. In their arsenal were truck-mounted anti-aircraft guns, weapons seen during the civil war in Libya and the recent fighting in northern Mali.

That attack in Bama killed at least 42 people, as well as 13 others that authorities described as Boko Haram fighters. But the insurgents' heavy weapons helped them overrun the barracks of the Nigerian Army's 202nd Battalion, as well as a police station, a police barracks, a magistrate's court, local government offices and a federal prison. The extremist fighters freed 105 prisoners during their assault, Lt. Col. Sagir Musa said.

The use of the weapons marks a transformation of Nigeria's Islamic extremist insurgency, which grew out of a 2009 riot led by Boko Haram members in Maiduguri that ended in a military and police crackdown that killed some 700 people. The group's leader died in police custody in an apparent execution, fueling dissent that broke into the open in 2010 with the targeted killings of government officials, security agents and religious leaders who spoke out against Boko Haram.

Since then, Islamic extremists have engaged in hit-and-run shootings and suicide bombings, attacks that have killed at least 1,618 people during that time, according to an Associated Press count. That number doesn't include the killings of at least 187 people in the fishing village of Baga during fighting between extremists and security forces, as witnesses and human rights activists say Nigeria's military killed civilians and burned thousands of homes and businesses.

Extremist attack casualties are expected to rise as fighters now have access to sophisticated weaponry. While Nigeria's military has fought in the past decade with heavily armed militants and criminal gangs operating in the creeks of its oil-rich southern delta, analysts and security official say those groups never had access to anti-aircraft weapons. Nor did these groups launch attacks overrunning military barracks or leveling towns.

Where extremists gathered these sophisticated weapons also remains unclear, though they have several means available to them. A propaganda video released in March by Boko Haram, featuring its leader Abubakar Shekau, showed fighters gathered around weapons they said they stole from an attack on an army barracks. Those weapons included what appeared to be heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and possibly anti-aircraft weapons, as well as ammunition and brand-new bulletproof vests.

Another source of tactics and weapons may come from northern Mali, where Nigerian extremists fought along others.

"Boko Haram will also likely recruit militants who fought and obtained new skills from warfare in Mali," wrote analyst Jacob Zenn in a recent publication by the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Army's West Point. "The Boko Haram attack on an army barracks in Monguno ... , in which the militants mounted weapons on four-wheel-drive vehicles, and the discovery of improvised fighting vehicles in a raid on a Boko Haram hideout in Maiduguri ... suggest that Boko Haram has already learned new methods of fighting from the Islamist militants in Mali."

Meanwhile, arms are likely to continue to come out of Libya from heavily armed militias there, said analyst Zounmenou. Those arms can spread quickly through the Sahara Desert and into West Africa's Sahel to Nigeria, a major shipment stop for illegal weapons, he said.

While Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has spoken before about the need to control arms shipments throughout West Africa, the trade continues largely unstopped. And as more of those weapons end up in the hands of Islamic extremists in Nigeria's north, more violence can be expected, said Zounmenou: "They are now really going to war."

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Jon Gambrell can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP .

Paolini, who rides for Katusha, broke away toward the end of the final descent to complete the 138-mile leg from Sorrento to Marina di Ascea in 5 hours, 43 minutes, 50 seconds.

Cadel Evans beat defending champion Ryder Hesjedal in a bunch sprint for second place, with both finishing 16 seconds behind. Overall favorite Bradley Wiggins finished eighth on the stage and is second in the general standings, 17 seconds behind Paolini. Main rival Vincenzo Nibali is fifth, 14 seconds further back.

Paolini timed his break to perfection on the descent of the Sella Di Catona, attacking four miles from the finish. Hesjedal attacked several times but could not build enough of an advantage and was caught each time.

''It's incredible to win like that and take the pink jersey as well,'' Paolini said. ''My father was in hospital today for a minor operation, and so this pink jersey is for him.

''I suffered to stay on during the climb and tried to ride at my pace. I knew there was a little climb near the finish and know I can descend pretty well. I went for it. I rode as if it was a (one-day) classic.''

The third stage took the riders along the picturesque Amalfi coast, and featured an early breakaway by seven riders who built a lead of more than seven minutes at the midway point.

But the Sky riders, who won the team trial in the second stage Sunday, was in control of the pack and the gap slowly began to shrink as they approached the start of the first climb of the day, up the San Mauro Cilento. At the summit, the leaders had an advantage of just more than four minutes.

Fabio Taborre made a solo breakaway from the leading group with 31 miles to go, but the peloton again picked up the pace and swallowed up the chasers before catching the Italian.

Hesjedal then attacked with 15.5 miles remaining, was caught and broke again together with Valerio Agnoli and Paolini.

The group was again back together nine miles from the end before Paolini's attack on the final part of the twisting descent to the line.

Tuesday's fourth stage is another hilly and long (153 miles) course. It goes from Policastro Bussentino to Serra San Bruno, the second-longest leg of this year's Giro. The race ends May 26 in Brescia.

A court spokeswoman says the case is set for Sept. 30 in Clark County District Court for the 54-year-old former rap and reality TV star. His legal name is William Jonathan Drayton Jr.

He could get up to 12 years in prison if he's convicted.

Drayton pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Nevada state court to felony assault with a weapon and child endangerment charges stemming from a family argument last October.

His attorney didn't immediately respond to messages.

A local judge who heard the teen testify last month decided there was enough evidence for Drayton to stand trial in state court.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- Warmer, drier weather conditions have helped farmers in North Dakota start fieldwork.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says in its weekly crop report that producers were able to start preparing fields by the middle of last week.

Spring wheat seeding was rated 7 percent complete. This is well behind last year at 80 percent and the average and the 40 percent average.

Calving was 90 percent complete, while lambing was 94 percent complete.

Cattle and calf conditions were rated 1 percent very poor, 4 percent poor, 21 percent fair, 66 percent good and 8 percent excellent.

Sheep and lamb conditions rated 4 percent poor, 21 percent fair, 67 percent good and 8 percent excellent.

Coach Rex Ryan said in a statement put out by the team in announcing the move that had been expected for months: "Unfortunately, things did not work out the way we all had hoped."

The Heisman Trophy winner attempted just eight passes after his ballyhooed arrival in a surprising trade from the Denver Broncos in March 2012. He threw for 39 yards and rushed 32 times for 102 yards and stunningly had no touchdowns as a member of the Jets.

Meanwhile, starter Mark Sanchez struggled amid constant questions about Tebow's playing time, and still Tebow remained mostly on the sideline. The Jets drafted quarterback Geno Smith in the second round of the NFL draft Friday, giving New York six quarterbacks on its roster and creating uncertainty about Sanchez's future, as well.

Tebow arrived at the team's facility in Florham Park, N.J., on Monday morning and was told he had been cut.

Tebow led the Broncos to the playoffs in 2011, but became expendable when Denver acquired Peyton Manning. The popular backup quarterback was acquired by the Jets for a fourth-round draft pick and $1.5 million in salary. He was introduced at the Jets' facility to plenty of fanfare at a lavish news conference, with Tebow repeatedly saying he was "excited" to be in New York. It turned out to be one of the few high points in Tebow's tenure with the Jets.

Along with his shirtless jog from the practice field in the rain during training camp, of course.

Owner Woody Johnson jokingly said last season that "you can never have enough Tebow." Well, the Jets apparently had their fill after just one year.

From the day the Jets made the move to bring Tebow in to compete with Sanchez, many fans and media predicted it was only a matter of time before the former Florida star stepped in. There were billboards outside the Lincoln Tunnel in New Jersey welcoming Tebow, and sandwiches named after him at Manhattan delis.

Meanwhile, the Jets insisted having both Tebow and Sanchez would not be a distraction. The plan was that the team would benefit from having both players' different skill sets: Sanchez as the traditional quarterback, and Tebow running the wildcat-style offense.

While everyone from Johnson to Ryan to former general manager Mike Tannenbaum to former offensive coordinator Tony Sparano said they were all "on board" with Tebow, it became evident early that he had no clear role.

And Tebow simply didn't impress enough in practice to earn more playing time.

Ryan refused to start Tebow in place of a struggling Sanchez late in the season, choosing instead to go with third-stringer Greg McElroy ahead of him for one game despite Tebow's multitude of fans taking to Twitter and begging the team to give their favorite player a chance. The since-fired Sparano never was able to figure out a way to consistently use Tebow, who spent most of his time on the sideline during games.

"Who knew, right?" Psy said as he was presented his Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award. "Giving me this award in itself is innovation, I think."

Referring to his sudden worldwide fame both on and off the Internet, where his videos have racked up more than one billion views on YouTube, Psy said, "I still cannot believe what happened right now."

"I'm still figuring out the reason for this happening like this," he said, noting that he had been working in music in his native South Korea for over a decade.

The Disruptive Innovation Awards honor those whose ideas have broken the mold to create significant impact.

"In our fourth installment, we are exploring the ever-increasing gap between the rate of technological change and the bumpier, slower-moving cultural adoption and diffusion," said Craig Hatkoff, a festival co-founder and the awards' chief curator.

Wearing a black suit and stylish white dress shirt, Psy, known for his megahit "Gangnam Style" as well as his energetic and flamboyant performances, charmed the audience with self-effacing remarks offered in rather halting English.

"I don't want to say this but, it's kind of embarrassing, but ... maybe, am I handsome?" The audience expressed its approval with cheers and applause.

The awards were presented at New York University, marking a homecoming of sorts for Psy, whose real name is Park Jae-sang.

"I applied to this school in 1996, but I failed. What a success," he said. "Finally, I entered this building this morning."

Other recipients of the Disruptive Innovation Awards included Beck, a conservative television and radio commentator, fashion designer Norma Kamali, Chobani yogurt mogul Hamdi Ulukaya, music and film entrepreneur Peter Shapiro and Forbes Media, in addition to Tharp who received a lifetime achievement award.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud, Editing by Jill Serjeant and Paul Simao)