Pseudo Rewrites Business Plan and Pink-Slips 58 Employees
Streaming video company Pseudo laid off 58 employees in an effort that a top executive said would streamline operations.
Senior Vice President Jeanne Meyer said her company is creating a central production unit that will create an immersive interactive experience for users that is as addictive as a video game. To do so, the company is rolling up 12 channels into one called the "Pseudo Center," which will offer video that ranges from wrestling to hip hop. But with the roll-up came a roll-out of employees that Meyer said was a move to eliminate job overlaps in production and operations.
"It's important for us to focus on what makes us different," said Meyer. "We have to stay competitive by offering something more than companies who just dump television onto the Web. We had to let people go to centralize our operations into one unit, called Pseudo Center."
The new unit will offer content that ranges from wrestling to finance that will run from noon to midnight Monday through Friday. The launch date is scheduled for mid-July.
Companies like Digital Entertainment Network, Kozmo.com, and Oxygen Media have all announced layoffs and business model tweaks in an effort to stay attractive to investors during a time when Internet stocks have lost appeal.
With so many companies opting to let employees go rather than risk a fast cash burn the Alley adage that there are more positions than people to fill them is becoming a misnomer.
Last month Pseudo received a $14 million round of financing led by LVMH media unit called Desfosses International. After the layoff the company will house just under 200 employees.