Online video editing service Jumpcut, which was acquired by Yahoo! in September 2006, appears to be in the process of shutting down.
From their website:
We’re sorry to announce that we are no longer accepting uploads to Jumpcut.
We will be keeping the Jumpcut site up and running for the foreseeable future so you‘ll still be able to play, remix and share your existing movies – you just won’t be able to upload anything new.
If you’re looking for a place to upload and share your video, we recommend that you head over to Flickr: http://flickr.com/explore/video
After a lull around Thanksgiving, December has seen some of the biggest layoffs in the tech industry yet since the economy entered its tailspin in the fall. Our Layoff Tracker is now past 100,000 lost jobs (109,629, as of this writing) across nearly 300 different technology and media companies both large and small. To put this in perspective, Citigroup alone announced 52,000 layoffs in November, and across the U.S. economy, just counting September and October, there were nearly 500,000 unemployment claims as a result of mass layoffs (data isn’t in yet for November or December). → Read More
The idea behind Leverage was simple and had some potential: it offered an advanced management system for gift cards, hugely popular worldwide especially this time of year, so you could register all of them and keep track of how much you have left or stored on each one. You were also able to buy gift cards, or swap them with others. The service also let you manage all of your loyalty reward programs, such as frequent-flyer or frequent-stay plans.
Leverage, which was founded in May 2005 and had raised $2 million in angel funding, planned to generate revenue by reselling gift cards (see our launch coverage for more). It turns out the business model wasn’t solid enough to keep the company afloat during tough times. It appears the entire staff has been laid off (right before the holidays, which is supposed to be a key period for this type of company) last week. → Read More
The pink slips were passed out on Thursday throughout the various business duchies that make up CBS Interactive—CNET, CBS.com, CBSNews,com, CBSSports.com, BNET, GameSpot, TV.com, last.fm, and CHOW. While CBS confirmed to me and other reporters that layoffs did happen across the board, it refused to talk about how many total people are losing their jobs. That left us scrambling about gathering piecemeal information. There were about 20 layoffs at Last.fm; 8 editors, we hear, at CBSNews.com are out of a job; another set of “redundancies” were eliminated at CBSSports.com.
But how big exactly were the layoffs, especially at Cnet, where most of the employees reside? CBS, which is at heart a news organization, doesn’t want the public to know how many layoffs just occurred at CBS Interactive. As of this writing, Cnet didn’t even report the fact that there were layoffs on Thursday. Neither did CBSNews.com. And it’s not because they didn’t get the memo (from CBS Interactive CEO Quincy Smith, reprinted below). → Read More
Accoona, the highly suspect New Jersey based search/electronics retailer, has suffered what might be its final disgrace – the closure of its last business, Twing.
The company, which offered a search product, has a rich history. Founder Marc Armand Rousso has a shady past involving stock fraud, and former President Bill Clinton was a spokesperson for the company.
Most of Accoona’s $137 million/year in revenue came from distributing electronics after buying a number of retailers in Brooklyn. In 2007 they canceled a planned IPO. The reason? The underwriter pulled the plug, saying “After completing our due diligence review, we have chosen to disassociate ourselves with the company.” → Read More
Pownce, the media-rich Twitter competitor once labeled by the New York Times as “the hottest startup in Silicon Valley”, is headed to the deadpool after being acquired by Six Apart. The service, which was co-founded by Digg’s Kevin Rose along with Leah Culver and Daniel Burka, will be closing its doors on December 15. Users will be able to export their accounts to other services, allowing them to retain their messages and media, but it looks like Pownce users will have to turn to Twitter for their micro-blogging needs (if they haven’t already). Culver and Mike Malone (Pownce’s two engineers) will be integrated into the Six Apart team.
The news doesn’t come as much of a surprise – Pownce has long struggled in the shadow of Twitter in the microblogging space, despite the fact that the Pownce crew objects to being called a Twitter competitor. There were some major differences: Pownce allowed users to share photos, music, videos, events and offered niceties like an official AIR application, but its core functionality was still very similar. → Read More
The company behind MyQuire, a simple but pretty powerful online application that lets individuals and team members work on projects in a social network-like environment, has been recently acquired.
That’s about all we know. We got in touch with CEO Michael Dawson but he declined to comment or share any details because the buyer apparently requested full confidentiality on the deal.
A tipster shared the following e-mail he received:
We have some big news! After nearly two years of building MyQuire, we have been acquired. We have had a great time working with you, and couldn’t have gotten here without your help.
As part of this deal, we will no longer be able to operate MyQuire.com. Services on the platform will end January 1, 2009. We apologize for any disruption to your work.
The collaboration tool was first launched about 14 months ago at the DEMOFall conference but we hadn’t really heard anything from or about the company since. → Read More
A quick update on the Mobuzz saga (the Spanish online video entertainment startup turned to asking for user donations to keep its head above water): they’re now officially in the deadpool.
From the website:
It is with deep regret that we inform our friends and fans that MobuzzTV has closed officially today. We need to take some time to see how best to reorganise our project. We have been talking with many interested parties but unfortunately we have not been able to financially sustain our operations until the agreements were closed.
The company has made it clear that all donations will be returned, and that the video archive built up over the last 4 years will remain online. → Read More
Even Google is getting into the downsizing spirit. It just announced that it is killing Lively, its browser-baseed virtual worlds that could be embedded into other Websites. Lively launched just last July. The death notice on the site says it will shut down on December 31, so we are adding Lively to the deadpool.
Lively just never took off, and was extremely far afield for Google. We should have known something was up when we noticed that it didn’t work with Google’s own browser, Chrome.
What else is being cut at Google? → Read More
AOL is on a product-cutting spree. In addition to the shuttering of XDrive, AOL Pictures, MyMobile And Bluestring, the company will also be shutting down the AOL Video Uploads service starting this week.
Users must move their videos prior to December 18, when the service closes for good and the videos will no longer be available. AOL is recommending that users transfer videos to Motionbox, a New York based video sharing and editing startup that we first covered in 2006.
The FAQ that AOL will distribute to users this week is below. This change doesn’t appear to affect AOL Video itself, which focuses on professional content from Hulu, CBS and other sources.
AOL Video Uploads
Q. When will the AOL Video Uploads close?
Effective December 18th, 2008 , AOL Video Uploads (uncutvideo.aol.com ) will be closed and all videos stored will no longer be accessible through AOL Video Uploads. AOL has evaluated several personal video offerings, and believes Motionbox, a leader in online personal video, to be the best suited to handle the needs of AOL Video Upload users. Motionbox is FREE and includes some great features.
We are recommending users go through a simple transfer process to move their videos to Motionbox, and also giving them the option to download or delete videos stored on the site.
Since the last time we gave an update at the beginning of the month there have been 20,171 layoffs at tech and media companies added to our Layoff Tracker. That brings the total to 58,709 tech layoffs over the past two and a half months.
One previously unreported layoff we have been able to confirm is 10 people at classifieds search engine Oodle, which occurred last week and represents a 20% reduction. Another layoff happened at Rearden Commerce, which trimmed about 40 people, or 10 percent (and Rearden just raised $100 million, showing that no company is immune).
The biggest layoff this month was announced just today by Sun Microsystems, which will be reducing its headcount by 5,000 to 6,000 (15 to 18 percent). Other big tech companies also announced cuts earlier this week, including Applied Materials (1,800 layoffs), Nokia Siemens Networks (750), and National Semiconductor (330). → Read More
Christos Cotsakos has the opposite of the Midas touch. Everything he touches seems only to implode. This happened to E-Trade back in 2000-2002 when he was the CEO. Cotsakos was famously replaced after enriching himself with a $78 million pay package during a year the stock tanked 53 percent. He had to give back some of that money, but kept enough to live lavishly in Florida and pour millions of dollars into an ill-conceived social network for international swingers called Moli.
Never heard of Moli? Don’t worry. It also just imploded. Moli was a me-three social network that was founded in 2006 way after that train had left the station, and didn’t launch publicly until January 2008 at DEMO. The main differentiating factor, if you can call it that, was the ability to show different profiles to different sets of contacts (personal, business, family). The site never got above 2.5 million visitors a month, according to Compete (see chart above). And we have learned from several former employees that most of its staff has been laid off, from a peak employment of about 55.
There was a big round of layoffs last September, when all but 15 or so people were let go. Last week, most of the remaining employees were cut loose. The site is still up, but it seems like there are only a handful of people left keeping the lights on hoping for a sale. That is unlikely to happen. We are placing Moli in the deadpool. (And something tells me many more social networks are headed there as well). → Read More
Atlanta, GA-based iKobo, a company that provides a worldwide money transfer service, is discontuining its operations, effective immediately. In an e-mail to its users, the company writes:
We regret to inform you that iKobo is discontinuing services. Effective immediately, no further money transfers to your iKobo account will be allowed. Your card issued by Palm Desert National Bank will continue to be active until November 13, 2008. Your card will no longer work after this date. However, the card funds are safe and guaranteed, even after the card is de-activated.
The rest of the e-mail after the jump. → Read More
Since our last update a week ago, we’ve added 18,885 job eliminations at tech and media companies to our Layoff Tracker. That brings the total to 38,538 layoffs across 108 companies over the past two months.
Some of the bigger reductions this week came from Motorola (3,000), Qwest (1,200), and Electronic Arts (600). Among startups, there were job cuts at Revision3 (10), Emusic (10), Sugar Publishing (9), Aliph/Jawbone (25), matchmine (42, deadpool), and Gizmos (10). We’ve also started adding media companies facing disruption from the Internet, including Gannett (3,000), Time Inc. (600), and Conde Nast (32), whose Portfolio magazine laid off nearly all of its Website staff.
If you know of any layoffs at a tech company, please submit a tip with the name of the company and number of layoffs. If it’s been covered, also send a link to the blog post or news article. (For those more interested in who is hiring, check out our job board).
Here is the full list of layoffs from the past week: → Read More
Two weeks after laying off 30 percent of his employees, Jaxtr CEO Konstantin Guericke finds himself out of a job. He is being replaced by vice president of engineering Bahman Koohestani (former CTO at Cyworld and Orbitz), who will be acting as “interim” CEO.
Jaxtr offers VoIP calls to both your regular and mobile phone. Its last round was a $10 million Series B in June. Investors include Lehman Brothers Venture Capital (yup, they are still around), August Capital, Mangrove, Mayfield, DFJ, and angels Ron Conway and Reid Hoffman. (Guericke was part of the founding team at LinkedIn).
The company is obviously going through a rough time, but Koohestani still spins it as a “very healthy” business. He offers the following partial stats: → Read More
San Francisco based PowerReviews, which has raised over $21 million in venture financing, has let 30% of staff go, say multiple sources. Among those that left is VP Marketing Jay Shaffer.
The company let retailers include Amazon-like product review features into their websites, for free. PowerReviews then aggregates reviews from their client retailers on their own customer-facing site called Buzzillions.
The company had at least 42 employees before the layoffs. We’ve contacted them for confirmation and have added them to the Layoff Tracker. → Read More
Massachusetts based MatchMine, which raised $10 million a year ago, has shut down operations.
The company created media recommendations that categorizes and analyzes your media likes and dislikes in order to serve you content that is more to your taste.
In a blog post today CEO Michael Troiano talks about the shutdown, and encourages others to hire the team, but he gives few details about the reason for the failure.
He suggests there’s some drama behind the scenes: “I could not have imagined this last Thursday, let alone earlier. It is one thing to be failed, quite another to have been deceived.” My guess (and it’s only a guess) is he’s pointing the finger at his investor, Kraft Group. Either a promised bridge funding fell through, or Kraft pulled what was left of their previous investment out of the company. That’s the only explanation for how the CEO didn’t know the company was shutting down a day before it happened. → Read More
The bomb-shelter mentality among startups is now so severe that even companies raising money are announcing layoffs in response to diminished economic prospects. Boston-based Helium just closed a $17 million series A financing about ten days ago, and then cut 30 percent of the organization (18 people) last week. CEO Mark Ranalli tells me:
We expect a deterioration of overall ad rates, and a slowing of the economy in general. Our approach was to take a third of every group across engineering, customer service, and sales.
Ranalli has been raising the $17 million piecemeal over the past year from hedge funds, family trusts, and wealthy individuals. The last $2 million came in two weeks ago. Combined with the current cuts, Ranalli believes he has enough to make it to profitability. → Read More
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