Newspaper crisis - The Wall Street Journal Online. El Chicago Sun-Times, también en quiebra. El grupo Sun-Times Media, propietaria del diario Chicago Sun-Times y de otras 59 publicaciones regionales y decenas de webs, ha iniciado el trámite de suspensión de pagos. Se trata de la quinta compañía editorial de Estados Unidos, y la segunda de la ciudad de Illinois tras Chicago Tribune Company, en asumir de esta manera que no puede hacer frente a sus deudas. Sun-Times Media seguirá publicando sus medios mientras intenta reestructurarse para recuperar la estabilidad financiera.
La empresa arrastra también compromisos impositivos de la gestión anterior encabezada por su ex presidente Conrad Black, quien actualmente se encuentra en prisión. Vía NYTimes/Chicago Tribune/Gawker. The Monitor se despide del papel. Fuzz.com deadpools, but Blip.fm stays afloat (Dealscape) Debevoise & Plimpton Follow the latest legal trends through our Knowledge Center partnership with Debevoise & Plimpton. Through regular client updates and thought-provoking newsletter analysis, dealmakers are guaranteed to stay up to date on various due diligence tactics, Dodd-Frank guidelines and executive compensation arrangements.
Check out our expert advisory strategy today. Pepper Hamilton Join Julia D. Corelli, a partner in the commercial department of Pepper Hamilton LLP and co-chair of both the firm's fund services group and its commercial department, for a discussion of tax issues that private equity funds need to be aware of before fundraising. McGladrey Global economic uncertainties continue to weigh on markets and M&A activity. Faegre Baker Daniels It's no secret that experts have been saying that corporations have an unprecedented pile of cash to the tune of $2 trillion on their balance sheets and are seeking to deploy these funds via acquisitions. Tech Layoffs Come Back With a Vengeance: 80,000 In January, Appr. After layoff activity in the tech industry quieted down around the holidays, it’s come back with a vengeance in January.
According to our Layoff Tracker, 80,076 job eliminations have been announced or completed since the beginning of the year. The total number of tech layoffs since we began tracking in late August is now 195,856. This past week alone, substantial layoffs were announced by Ericsson (5,000), Intel (6,000), and Microsoft (5,000). The biggest job loss by far is the 34,000 employees of Circuit City, which announced it is going out of business last week.
Among startups, layoffs hit Digg, Federated Media, and O”Reilly Media. If you know of any layoffs at a tech company, please submit a tip with the name of the company and number of layoffs. Below is the list of January layoffs from our tracker. Google despedirá a 100 empleados de planta. Si, ni la empresa más importante y exitosa de la red se salva de los despidos y la crisis. Ahora le tocó a Google, quien anunció que despedirán a 100 reclutadores. Considerando que Google tiene miles y miles de empleados por ahora parecen estar echando sólo a los necesarios y algunos de ellos, según informó Laszlo Bock, encargado de las relaciones humanas, podrán conseguir un puesto en otros sectores de la empresa. Esto fue lo que dijeron en el blog oficial: Como dejamos claro en el último cuatrimestre Google todavía está contratando pero a un reducido nivel.
Dado el estado de la economía, reconocemos que necesitamos menos gente en el área contratación. Comentaron que el primer paso fue desligarse de todas las empresas que se encargaban de la contratación de personas (gente tercerizada). Y sí, cada vez se pone más feo, no es lo mismo que una empresa pequeña donde los ingresos son reducidos despida gente que lo haga una de las empresas más importantes relacionadas a internet. Fox Interactive Media To Shut Down Flektor And SpringWidgets. In an effort to control costs and consolidate products, MySpace parent company Fox Interactive Media is shuttering the SpringWidgets (which launched in 2006) and Flektor (acquired in 2007) widget platforms.
Twenty five employees are affected. Ten employees at Flektor’s Culver City offices will have the opportunity to interview for positions at MySpace. It’s not clear if SpringWidget’s fifteen employees, located in Atlanta, Georgia, have been laid off or will be able to find new jobs within MySpace. Both sites are set to be shut down, says a FIM representative. SpringWidgets has evolved into a platform that MySpace uses to create widgets for advertisers. Earlier this year MySpace let 5% of employees go (under a new performance plan). It’s important to note that Fox Interactive Media has 1,700 or so employees, so the layoffs aren’t material.
Flektor and SpringWidgets are added to the deadpool. DivX Cuts 21 People From Payroll. Layoffs At Last.FM Confirmed. Where Else Are Heads Rolling At CB. Today, CBS Interactive is laying off people across several of its properties, I’ve confirmed with the company. CBS is not saying which divisions or how many people are affected. It is positioning the layoffs as part of the integration process it began six months ago when it bought CNET for $1.8 billion. But it is not just the CNET businesses that are being cut. I’ve also confirmed that earlier today employees at social music site Last.FM were let go. CBS bought Last.fm in 2007 for $280 million . One source puts the number of layoffs at as many as 40 people, mostly from LAst.FM’s London HQ, which has a total staff of 95 . A spokesperson for CBS Interactive says that number is inaccurate on the high side, but won’t provide the correct number. Last.fm never really became a big money maker from what I can gather, and all of those engineers and other staff members are not cheap.
The Last.fm staff learned about the layoffs a little more than an hour ago. Pownce desaparece (y el equipo pasa a Six Apart) Pownce cierra en dos semanas, decisión tomada por su nuevo dueño, que no es otro que Six Apart (la compañía tras Typepad, Vox y Movable Type). Más que de compra se podría hablar de una especie de “absorción / liquidación”, a Six Apart parece interesarle mucho más el equipo (dos personas que pasan a sus filas), que Pownce como servicio (aunque habrá que ver si al final deciden integrar algo similar dentro de Vox). Los detalles están en Venturebeat y en el anuncio en el blog oficial.
Se paralizó Jaiku, cierra Pownce, Plurk tampoco ha ido demasiado lejos… las alternativas a Twitter languidecen ante su terrible efecto red. en estas nuevas herramientas de comunicación en internet uno está donde están los contactos que quiere seguir y ninguna alternativa a Twitter parece encontrar ese valor diferencial que le permita no ya mover a los usuarios actuales sino plantearse como una opción para los nuevos que van llegando. 11 troubled Web companies: The next Kozmos? | Webware. "We are going to lose some good companies. " That's the warning cry from investors in tech these days. Some we won't miss, of course: the lame, me-too, or single-featured "products" masquerading as businesses. But be prepared.
Some Web 2.0 start-ups that are well-loved by many are in serious danger of falling off the cliff. The problem is that being loved is no guarantee for success. Even being used isn't enough. Remember Kozmo, the munchie messenger service from the last bubble? Here, in no particular order, are 11 online services companies that could face a similar fate. Twitter Although well-used by many and even relied upon by some (like me), Twitter has yet to turn on a revenue model.
Meebo This is one of the coolest online communication companies I've seen. TripIt A very useful service for organizing travel information. Zillow The real-estate site's revenue model is advertising. Pandora People love this product. Second Life The Web interface and social network of the future. Skype Ask. Mobuzz necesita tu ayuda.
Y aunque parezca mentira, después de tantos meses de acompañarnos diariamente con información relacionada al mundo en el que todos nosotros nos movemos, a la gente de Mobuzz le pegó fuertísimo la crisis y las personas que hacen publicidad en el servicio dicen que "hay que esperar un poco" para seguir poniendo plata. El problema es que las cuentas hay que pagarlas todos los meses y nadie esperará hasta el final de la crisis para cobrarlas. Por este motivo la gente que hace Mobuzz está pidiendo la ayuda de todas las personas que siguen el servicio. Están pidiendo donación por parte de todos nosotros para que los ayudemos a superar la crisis y mantenerse en pie un buen tiempo más. Para eso tienen solamente una semana para recaudar 120 mil euros, una tarea increíblemente complicada pero si todos nos juntamos y aportamos un granito de arena, podremos recaudarlo.
Por favor, si miras usualmente Mobuzz o quieres que el servicio sobreviva ayúdalos. Rumor: Imeem Laying Off Staff and Looking for an Exit (Updated) According to PaidContent, Imeem, one of our favorite streaming music services, is starting to feel the pressure of the economic downturn and is planning to lay off a quarter of its workforce. According to this report, Imeem is also looking for a potential candidate to buy the company. Imeem is one of Sequoia's portfolio companies, so it doesn't come as a surprise that it is looking to keep its budget under control, but we do think that Imeem is going to have a hard time finding a buyer in these tough economic times.
Update: We just got a response from Imeem. The company is indeed laying off 25% of its staff (20 positions) in order to cut cost, but wouldn't comment on the rumors around a potential sale of the company. Imeem's last funding round was a Series C round led by Sequoia in April, though the company did not reveal the actual amount of this investment. Warner Brothers also invested about $15 million in Imeem. . $200 Million. Video Site Brightcove Shuts Down Free Services - ReadWriteWeb. Brightcove was once considered to be a formidable challenger for YouTube.
However, just about a year ago, it became clear that the company had given up on this dream when it announced that it would no longer accept direct consumer uploads to its service. Since then, Brightcove only featured content from its roughly 40,000 publishing partners on the Brightcove Network, though its main business has been its white-label video platform. Today, Brightcove announced that it will also close the free Brightcove Network and completely focus on its premium services.
Not Enough Revenue According to a blog post by Adam Berrey, Brightcove's Senior VP of Marketing and Strategy, the advertising financed Brightcove Network only drove about 1% of Brightcove's revenue, so from a purely financial perspective, it must have been an easy decision for Brightcove to shutter the free version of its service. Videos Will Stop Playing.