Leadership of the Fox Mobile Group is in disarray, as the CEO, COO and CMO have all left the company, mocoNews has learned. Fox Mobile has also recently conducted a deep round of layoffs in Berlin, where it had major operations, with as at least 70 people losing their jobs globally, the company said.
Fox Mobile confirmed the executive departures, and said operations are now being run by Mark Anderson, the EVP and CFO, who has now been given the additional title of Business Operations. The CEO, Mauro Montanaro, left the company about three months ago to pursue other opportunities, though the company never announced it. Fox Mobile said it won’t be replacing him. COO Kaj Hargros and CMO Giovanni Montesanti have also left the company. Fox Mobile said it will not replace Hargros, but has hired a new CMO, Christoph Hoerenz.
Fox Mobile has struggled following News Corp.’s announcement last year that it was overhauling its mobile division after buying the remaining 49 percent stake in Jamba from VeriSign (NSDQ: VRSN). As part of the restructuring, News Corp (NYSE: NWS). created the Fox Mobile Group, and planned aggressive new initiatives, including a new U.S. brand that has been delayed multiple times over the past year. Those initiatives included a mobile video service on smartphones. Despite these departures, a Fox Mobile spokesperson said the initiative is still moving forward and they expect to launch something in the first half of the year.
The group’s main source of revenue comes from selling ringtones and other content through its Jamster brand in the U.S., Jamba in Europe, and through carriers around the world. Of course, that market has plunged as more people re-use content they already own to personalize their phones. Plus, the trend has also turned to smartphones, and Fox Mobile has failed to keep up.
In June, the Fox Mobile Group confirmed the new video experience was set to
Mauro – wherefore art thou?
you need to go back to the genesis of this train wreck to understand what happened. the entire operation was a response by Micheal Lang and Lucy Hood to create a flashpoint for mobile and they went out and bought a ringtone piece of crap. Hood had no clue how to run it and Peter Chernin let them bury themselves. Lang pushed this hard and is ultimate accountable.
actually around 150 people have been laid off. employee number on their page dropped now from 750 to 600.
http://www.jamba.de/corp/jobs-karriere/arbeiten-bei-uns/?l=en
i left the company before, but as insider i have to agree with Jackson Hemet: they really had no clue how to run the company and i told them. i expected this in a timeframe of 1 or 2 years. it was only one now..
here we go:
fox will dump fox mobile (aka jamba)
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/5014fe6e-2c3a-11df-9187-00144feabdc0,dwp_uuid=e8477cc4-c820-11db-b0dc-000b5df10621.html