Big fish business adjustment cut 49 employees

According to VentureBeat, Big Fish's business may have changed significantly in the company's CEO and founder Http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/13830.html ">paul In a letter Thelen to all employees, Thelen revealed that 49 employees would be laid off and another 70 employees would be restructured. The company now has 524 full-time employees in Seattle, so the layoffs have almost affected around one-nineth jobs.

The company is also preparing to strengthen its office in Seattle and is preparing to close the Vancouver studio. This is mainly because the company has decided to focus on key language versions, and big Fish is also ready to stop at the Cork facility.

In addition to business changes, Thelen announced changes to the management team. John Holland will be the president and COO of Big Fishgames, former president Dave Stephenson will be a position outside of big fish, and, at present, big fishd four operations general manager will report directly to the Thelen work, Make them more focused on business growth.

The following is the full text of a letter Thelen to employees:

Since Big Fish was founded more than 10 years ago, we have been trying to improve to meet the changing casual gaming market and our customers ' needs. Thank you all for the tremendous impetus and contribution to the company, our company can maintain the healthy development, has achieved the steady growth in each kind of business, also has introduced the product which is approved by tens of millions of players. In fact, 2013 will be the year we create a new revenue record for the 11th time, and our net profits and cash are plentiful. I am very proud of what we have done together and excited about the future of the company, so I find it particularly difficult to write this letter.

The pace of change in the industry requires us to invest more in the growing field and to pinpoint our future. We will continue to add new businesses, many of which have achieved success, especially free gaming business. Our gaming business is just one example, Big Fish Casino has long occupied the top 10 of the iphone and ipad income list. But there's a "but" behind all the good news, and what I'm saying here is that in order to continue our growth, companies need to readjust all their resources, invest more in growing or profitable areas, and reduce investment in areas that are not very successful.

We have to make some tough decisions in these business areas that are not growing or profitable. What I want to emphasize is that our decision is not due to the overall poor performance of the company, nor are the employees in these areas not enough effort, the company and you are very good, but as these markets are changing, frankly speaking, some markets are shrinking. The most important decision we have to make today is to stop our previous cloud transport business. The growth of the service did not meet our expectations, and it did not bring profits to the company, which led to increased corporate spending and low user usage, which is not worth the investment.

Our free business, including leisure and gaming, will continue to grow and will be our main growth area in the future, and we will increase the number and investment in these areas. Our paid casual games will also invest in more investment, especially in English, French, German and Japanese, and we will evaluate the feasibility of new language versions and support other markets.

So what does that mean?

First, we will adjust more than one-seventh of our staff to a growing business, although 49 full-time employees in Seattle will be affected by layoffs.

Second, Seattle is the site of our headquarters and will continue to be a development base for free and paid casual gaming. So we'll consider closing the Vancouver game development Studio and bringing people to Seattle. Oakland will continue to be a research and development base for free gaming.

Third, in support of this strategy and adjustment, we are also adjusting the management team. The following decision will take effect from today: John Holland was appointed president and COO of Big Fish Games, who will continue to lead global operations and content acquisition and research and development. John will succeed Dave Stephenson as president, Stephenson will be looking for new opportunities outside of big fish. Dave has been one of the most valuable members of our management team and we want him to do better. In addition, as John increased his responsibility for big fish, the four business executives we reported directly to Dave and John would be directly managed by me, so that I could focus more on business growth.

Finally, as part of our decision to focus on the four-language business, we are ready to close our facilities at Cork and we will conduct a 30-day consultation with the staff concerned.

As one of the founders of the company, it is very sad to say goodbye to the excellent companions who have fought together, and in many ways we are close friends. Layoffs are not an easy decision, and we would never do that if it wasn't for the company's consideration and future development. Because it's never been a simple or a good way, but for the right direction of the company, we have to do this, and we will do as much for the affected employees as possible to minimise their losses.

I know many of you will question this change. We encourage you to have a heart-to-heart talk with your respective managers and, of course, you can always speak to me face-to-face.

As difficult as these changes are, I am also excited about our future. We have expanded and tuned resources to devote more effort to the growth of casual gaming. Our current goal is to maintain and grow our leadership in the world of casual gaming, free and paid, whether it be pc,mac or mobile platforms.

We make these adjustments in the hope of becoming stronger, not because the company is weak, and I believe our future is not a dream.