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Hands-On Mobile Lays Off Undisclosed Number Of Employees

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Hands-On Mobile, the San Francisco-based mobile game maker known for Guitar Hero and Texas Hold ‘Em, confirmed today that it cut an undisclosed number of employees. CEO David White declined to say how many people were affected during the cuts, or how many employees the company will have going forward.

However, White was quick to explain that the cuts were made for different reasons than the ranks of other game makers that have trimmed their workforces recently. He said while most of the game makers are seeing revenues fall, that’s not true at Hands-On Mobile. Rather, White said they trimmed their workforce to more properly align itself with the size of the organization. For more than a year, the company has been working to spin-off its international divisions, and has successfully sold its European, Korean and Beijing offices. EA bought the company’s Korean business for $29 million in cash; Hands-On spun-off and invested in its European division; and the Beijing office was sold through a management buy-out.

White: “Globally, where we cease to have a presence anymore, we have no more revenues, but in markets where we continue to compete, we’ve grown our market share and our revenues on a quarterly and yearly basis….We saw some of this storm coming and we decided to sell off the non-core assets at the top of the market. We were able to stockpile a load of cash and find ourselves in a deeply advantageous position having liquid resources at our disposal.” Regarding the layoffs, he said there was some extra staff that they no longer needed as a U.S.-focused operation. “It takes awhile to unwind some of the support functions to run international operations…We’ve been running heavy for awhile.”

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White said the economy has not affected Hands-On directly yet, and they are seeing strong revenues from smartphones, like the iPhone, he’s cautious given the dire reports from companies, like EA, Vivendi (EPA: VIV) and Glu Mobile (NSDQ: GLUU). White: “We are feeling cautiously optimistic about how things are going. We hear competitors, like Glu and EA talk about how dismal things are, and we would be foolish not to pay attention and not to prepare for a coming storm that may or may not happen to us.”

Hands-On Mobile, which is a privately held company that has raised millions of dollars in venture capital, hasn’t always been in such a prime position, and in fact, it’s hard to believe it has come so far in such a difficult environment. Just over a year ago, the company shelved plans to file for an IPO, and instead conducted a restructuring, which led to the CEO’s Jonathan Sacks departure. That’s when White took control, and the company started shedding divisions. White even suggests that things may have turned around so much, that they could become a buyer again. “We are attentive. There’s a lot of distressed assets right now, and a lot of folks who are short on cash…We are buyers under the right set of facts and circumstances, keeping an ear to the ground.”

Dec 12, 2008 7:09 PM ET

Posted In: Entertainment, Games, Jobs & Layoffs, Media & Publishing, Money, M&A & Venture Capital, Mergers & Acquisitions, Companies, Hands-On, hands-on mobile, layoffs

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