Vindigo Bags It, Lays Off 30

Vindigo, the pioneering New York-based mobile content company that’s been around almost a decade, is being shut down by its owner, Japan’s For-Side, Silicon Alley Insider reports. The company is in the process of laying off its 30-odd employees.

“Vindigo was founded in 1999 and was originally supposed to supply city guides for Palm Pilots. It survived the bursting of the first bubble, albeit in severely diminished form, and in 2004 was acquired by For-Side, which was making a foray into mobile content in the U.S. and the U.K.”

Vindigo originally worked on MapQuest Mobile and some of the maps, and also dabbled in ring tones, ad-supposed mobile Web sites, wallpaper, and other mobile content offerings. The company never really regained traction after its acquisition in 2004.

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