Trouble At Blue Frog: Cuts 55 Employees; Board Member/Investor Resigns
Blue Frog Mobile, the mobile ringtones and now mobile-to-tv interactivity player based out of Seattle, has seen much upheaval this year, both on the company level as well as the macro ringtone-sector level. Now, more trouble, as it has cut about 55 employees and shut down a Hispanic music channel called BullaTV that allowed users to send text messages to the TV screen, reports SeattlePI. The company is now focusing on the interactive TV efforts, even though it still remains a player in the shrinking ringtones market.
The story says that majority of the cuts occurred at the company’s operations in Mexico and the Philippines, and staffing at the Seattle headquarters was cut by more than half. The company now employs about 10 people in Seattle and 235 worldwide. CEO Victor Siegel blamed it on the tough U.S. Hispanic marketplace, with competition from Univision and Telemundo.
Also, board member Maha Ibrahim of Canaan Partners stepped down a couple of days ago. Canaan is one of Blue Frog’s largest investors, having participated in the company’s $16 million venture round in 2005. No specific explanation was given by the company.
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Comments (3)
Dec 15, 2007 8:36 PM
Rafat,
Only comment I’d like to make is to get a bit more into details behind why the board member / investor resigned before you publish. Your article portrays the job cuts and investor resigning in the same vein, making people believe that something is terribly wrong with the company. It might have been coincidental, and the investor might have resigned on purely personal grounds.
Srini
Dec 16, 2007 4:05 AM
You may want to read the Seattle PI story again and decide for yourself..I’m merely pointing to the two bits of news out of the company. My pint about trouble is the layoffs…
Dec 18, 2007 4:38 AM
Srini, It’s pretty obvious that something is terribly wrong with the company.