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RealNetworks unhooks 130 employees in jobs cull
But we're still hiring!
RealNetworks confirmed yesterday that it is to reduce its workforce by 10 per cent by axeing 130 jobs at the internet media company.
Despite the lay-offs, the firm's CEO Bob Kimball said it would continue to hire people in what he described as "growth areas" for RealNetworks.
Job cuts will hit engineering, sales, marketing and admin wings of the business.
Staff based in nearly all of RealNetworks' 16 worldwide offices – which include locations in Europe, the US and Asia – will be affected by the employee cull.
RealNetworks said it expected to swallow a charge of around $3m in its first quarter resulting from the layoffs. However, it said it hoped to save about $11m a year once the workforce reduction had been completed.
“Our plan to simplify, restructure and grow is on track,” said Kimball.
“While the process of restructuring is always difficult, we made substantial progress in 2010 in simplifying our organisation and restructuring to reduce costs. With an efficient foundation in place we are now focused intensely on growing RealNetworks.”
As part of the company's rejig, RealNetworks plans to hire people for its software as a service, "media cloud" and "socialised games" products.
The layoff announcement came ahead of the firm's Q4 results, which will be reported tomorrow. ®
Biting the hand that feeds IT
