Written by Chris Albrecht
Posted Friday, May 23, 2008 at 7:44 AM PT

Confirmed: Akimbo Closed for Good

VentureBeat is reporting that Akimbo is shutting its doors for good. We have contacted the company for confirmation and will update as soon as we have any further information.

Update: We received confirmation that Akimbo has indeed shut down. We’re following up to get more details and will post them as we learn more.

Update 2: We spoke with Akimbo CFO Peter Chantel and got the full scoop on the company being shut down as it looks for a buyer.

As we’ve written before, Akimbo has always struggled to find its place in the modern video landscape, trying numerous business models and burning through even more cash. In its journey from hardware maker to content services provider to its latest incarnation as a white-label video provider, the company has gone through $47 million since 1999, raising its latest round of $4 million just a few months ago.

Akimbo brought on Thomas Frank as CEO a little over a year ago to turn it around and hired Phil Sakakihara as its new CTO in March.

There were more pressing signs of trouble recently as the company laid off 10 people earlier this month.

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Topic: Startups

Comments (4)

very interesting as it looked for a while like Akimbo was trying to make a comedback

Daisy Whitney — 9:18 AM on May 23, 2008 Reply
11.29.04 – “So when Shannon pitched the Akimbo idea to dozens of venture capital firms two years ago, right in the teeth of the tech crash, he was unsurprised to see his listeners roll their eyes in disdain. “I was practically climbing over dead bodies to show them another moron with an interactive TV idea,” he says.”
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2004/1129/162_2.html

G — 11:34 AM on May 23, 2008 Reply
Lie in general is about flow. Well designed systems are theproduct of evolution. If you aren’t evolving you’re devolving. Looks like Akimbo is just that. The web isn’t television! Hey, web 4.0 is just around the corner, eh? ;)

vaxen var — 11:34 AM on May 23, 2008 Reply
Oi! “Lie” in the above comment should be Life! So sorry about that… “Life in general is about flow.”

Vax

vaxen var — 11:36 AM on May 23, 2008 Reply

Linkbacks (6)

[...] Looks like Akimbo is finally dead. [...]

May 23: What’s Interesting This Morning… — 8:59 AM on May 23, 2008
[...] Akimbo Skeleton Crew Looking for a Buyer As we confirmed earlier this morning, Akimbo has laid off most of its staff and closed operations. We’ve now learned [...]

UPDATE: Akimbo Skeleton Crew Looking for… — 10:29 AM on May 23, 2008
[...] entrant in the Internet Video game has shuttered its doors, as first indicated by VentureBeat and confirmed by NewTeeVee. Peter Chantel, CFO of the company told NewTeeVee that the nine-year-old company has held onto a [...]

Akimbo, Dot Gone - GigaOM — 5:26 PM on May 23, 2008
[...] entrant in the Internet Video game has shuttered its doors, as first indicated by VentureBeat and confirmed by NewTeeVee. Peter Chantel, CFO of the company told NewTeeVee that the nine-year-old company has held onto a [...]

Akimbo, Dot Gone - GigaOM — 5:26 PM on May 23, 2008
[...] While Apple is in no danger of extinction, they are no doubt aware of the struggles that a host of startups and big vendors have faced in the consumer electronics market. While Apple has largely bucked the [...]

What’s Next for Apple’s Living Room Strategy… — 6:51 AM on July 7, 2009
[...] While Apple is in no danger of extinction, they are no doubt aware of the struggles that a host of startups and big vendors have faced in the consumer electronics market. While Apple has largely bucked the [...]

What’s Next for Apple’s Living Room Strategy… — 12:12 AM on July 9, 2009