After being laid off from the gaming company Zynga this week, an ex-employee described the “terrible” business strategy that caused a nearly 20 percent reduction in workforce in a reddit interview, or AMA.
Laid-Off Zynga Employee Tells All on Reddit
layoffs
Mediabistro Webcast
Vine has added sound and motion to the popular microblogging website, Twitter. Learn how to bring your information to life in our Vine webcast on Wednesday, June 19 from 4-5 pm ET. In this one-hour webcast, Gemma Craven (left), EVP, New York group director at Social@Ogilvy will discuss best practices for using the visual social platform and share some of her team's successful vine videos. Register here.
"Vine: Create Quick Social Videos To Market Your Brand" Webcast
Vine has added sound and motion to the popular microblogging website, Twitter. Learn how to bring your information to life in our Vine webcast on Wednesday, June 19 from 4-5 pm ET. In this one-hour webcast, Gemma Craven (left), EVP, New York group director at Social@Ogilvy will discuss best practices for using the visual social platform and share some of her team's successful vine videos. Register here. Zynga Slashes Workforce by Nearly 20 Percent
Zynga today laid off 18 percent of its workforce, eliminating 520 positions. The company will close its New York and Los Angeles offices.
Viddy Lays Off a Third of Its Staff
Viddy, a video-sharing service that early handicappers had leading Vine, has eliminated 12 positions, or one third of its total Los Angeles-based staff.
StumbleUpon Lays Off 30% of Workforce in Effort to Streamline
StumbleUpon today laid off 35 of its staffers, reducing its total headcount by more than 30 percent, the company said. The move came as part of a larger effort to “become more streamlined [and] focused,” according to spokesman Mike Mayzel.
LivingSocial Lays Off 10 Percent of Its Workforce
Daily deals site LivingSocial is laying off 400 employees, or 10 percent of its global workforce, CNNMoney has confirmed.
Showing Losses, Salesforce Pink-Slips 100 Employees
After filing financial statements for Buddy Media that showed a $20.5 million loss last quarter, Salesforce today laid off about 100 employees at its other acquired social analytics arm, Radian6. “With the integration of Radian6 and Buddy Media, the Salesforce Marketing Cloud is re-balancing its resources to support its growth. Fewer than 100 people were impacted globally,” a spokesperson said.
Zynga and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
As Apple commanded the tech world’s attention earlier today, Zynga broke some bad news to its employees: Hundreds of them were being laid off, and The Ville was being sent out to pasture, as sister blog Inside Social Games reported. The company later confirmed the layoffs, releasing a letter that CEO Mark Pincus had sent out to staff.
Myspace Employees Facing Ax This Week?
The ax will swing again at Myspace this week if there is any truth to rumors reported by Gawker.
Cryspace: Myspace Confirms Speculation of Some 500 Layoffs
Myspace’s October launch of a redesigned Web site and shifting of its focus to entertainment apparently wasn’t entertaining enough in the handful of weeks since it went live, as the News Corp.-owned social-networking site confirmed speculation that it would lay off 500 employees, or roughly one-half of its staff.
While News Corp. claims that it the moves were made “in order to provide the company with a clear path for sustained growth and profitability,” they could also be interpreted as making Myspace leaner in hopes of a potential sale.
The statement from CEO Mike Jones:
Today Myspace is implementing a significant organizational restructuring that will result in a 47 percent staff reduction across all divisions globally and impact about 500 employees. With our recent relaunch as an entertainment destination for Gen Y, we introduced a much tighter focus, a significantly streamlined product, and an updated technology platform.
Former Digg CEO Jay Adelson says Digg's Recent Round of Layoffs 'Doesn't Make Me Look Back and Regret Not Selling the Company Sooner.'
Yesterday Revision3 co-founder Jay Adelson spoke at the Failcon Conference in San Francisco on the subject of failure – not that of his current company, which celebrated its fifth anniversary in May – but of his previous venture, Digg, which he left in April 2005 after supposedly turning down multiple offers to sell. When he opened the floor to questions from the audience Adelson had to react, in real time, to some unsettling news: an audience member had just read in TechCrunch that Digg laid off 25 employees – that’s 37% off its staff.
