Big Fish Games fires 15% of employees, including top managers
Again about abbreviations. The publisher of Big Fish Casino and Gummy Drop is going to cut its staff by 15%. He will dismiss not only developers, but also several key figures in management.
This is with reference to a letter that was recently sent to the company’s employees, GeekWire reports. In it, Jeff Karp, president and managing director of Big Fish, who previously led Electronic Arts and Zynga, explains the layoffs with the company’s plans to focus on the development of social casinos and casual games.
The cuts will mainly affect Big Fish’s premium business, SkyRocket’s internal development studio (she, for example, was responsible for the creation of Fairway Solitaire and Cascade) and a number of central teams. Also leaving are: Senior Vice President of Operations, Vice President of Development, Vice President of Studio Operations, Vice President of Licensing and Vice President of Advertising. And this is not a complete list.
Considering that the company had 735 employees as of July, 110 people are losing their jobs. However, some leave voluntarily. For example, Carey DiJulio, Senior vice president of product and Marketing, who has promoted the company’s social casino business for nine years, is moving to the position of CEO at Epic Venture Games. As for Finance Director Gina Heverley, she decided to retire after 15 years of work.
After the layoffs, Big Fish has big plans. As the letter also says, the company plans to manage four development studios in the future, which will focus on developing high-quality content and creating cool games. In addition, the company will have a publishing vertical that will help Big Fish games with expertise in marketing, management, operation and brand creation based on game titles.
Recall that Big Fish Games was acquired from Churchill Downs the year before last for $990 million. Its current owner is the Australian gambling giant Aristocrat Technologies. The company brought him $249 million in revenue in the first half of this year alone, which is 12% more than in the same period last year.
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