THQ Restructures Wireless Division; Will Focus On Smartphones And Layoff 100 Employees
This story was written by Tricia Duryee.
THQ (NSDQ: THQI), the global game developer and publisher, told employees yesterday that it plans to restructure its wireless division based on plans announced in November to return the company to profitability. As part of the restructuring, the company will close some offices, focus its efforts on developing games only for smartphones and will layoff about 100 people worldwide. A number of confusing reports came out this morning, but we have the internal memo from CEO Brian Farrell to clear up the matter. (Entire text after the jump.)
Farrell wrote: "As part of our goal of aligning our business to focus on our most competitive product categories, we have decided to streamline our THQ Wireless operations to focus only on games for high-end handheld devices. Given today's market environment, we believe our focus on the high-end handheld market is critical to strengthening our market position and achieving profitability. As a result, we will be downsizing our wireless group and will be closing our San Diego, UK and Germany wireless offices. Approximately 100 employees will be affected." He said the company's Universomo studio in Finland will continue to be the center of its wireless business. The memo only mentioned developing games for the iPhone, but it can be assumed that it will also develop games for other smartphone platforms, like N-Gage and Android.
In November, THQ announced a plan to get back on track, which included closing a few studios, canceling several upcoming titles and layoffs of about 250 peopleacross the entire company. But at the time, mobile gaming was considered a bright spot with revenues up 29 percent to $6.2 million compared to the year-ago period. However, it's still a small portion of the company with mobile making up 3.8 percent of THQ's overall revenue. The company will report earnings next week.
By Tricia Duryee