Online video service maniaTV Network Inc. has laid off 15 of its 33 employees as the company prepares for a sale, CEO Peter Hoskins tells The Deal on Wednesday.
Revision3, the San Francisco online video service co-founded by serial entrepreneur Kevin Rose (founder of Digg Inc. and the recently deadpooled Pownce), has been rumored a likely buyer, but both Hoskins and Revision3 CEO Jim Louderback said there is no truth to this speculation.
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Former executives laid off by maniaTV assert the company is losing advertisers and has been bringing in "zero revenues" during the first quarter of the year. Hoskins disputed this claim.
"Revenues have absolutely been coming in for January, February and March," he argues. He declines to provide any figures but points to AT&T Inc. as an example of a current advertiser.
Even before the layoffs Tuesday, there had been somewhat of a revolving door at maniaTV. In December, the company added half a dozen employees just weeks after laying off 20 staffers. Some of those recent hires have since departed maniaTV.
The company has raised $22 million in venture funding from Benchmark Capital of Menlo Park, Calif.; Centennial Ventures of Denver; DAG Ventures of Palo Alto, Calif.; and Intel Corp.'s Intel Capital of Santa Clara, Calif. -- Mary Kathleen Flynn
Comments
As someone who walked out the door on maniaTV months ago, I can tell you that if Peter Hoskins name was Pinocchio, his nose would have grown a mile down Pico with the lies he continues to spin. Whatever ad units remain on the site are ROS placed there by a mass aggregator. They have no portfolio of national brands and what little traffic they do have comes from pop up ads they buy in bulk. That's why their average page views per user continues to be 1...as in, I accidentally click on the pop up ad, I land on the home page and I immediately leave the site. Keep spinning those lies, Hoskins. It will catch up with you sooner rather than later.