Sezmi Lays Off 20
Sezmi, the upstart set-top box maker that plans to deliver television through a combination of over-the-air transmission and broadband, today laid off 20 percent of its staff, or 20 employees, according to The New York Times.
Sezmi President and Chairman Phil Wiser denied that his company was facing problems but said the landscape is very different now than it was two months ago, and told the Times, “Any executive that does not take these changes very seriously would be irresponsible.”
Wiser also said that his company has raised a new round of funding that it would be announcing soon. We know that back at the beginning of August, Sezmi was looking to raise $50 million and that the company, formerly known as Building B, had previously raised $18 million.
We’re suspect of the company and its solution to deliver on-demand TV. It’s a combination of broadcast transmission and broadband delivery struck us as overly complicated for people to abandon their current cable or satellite subscription. The company says it just finished up successful technical trials of the product with three local broadcasters in Seattle, and is prepping for a larger trial next year.
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[...] Sezmi Secures $28 Million; influx of cash comes on the heels of the set-top box company laying off 20 percent of its staff. [...]
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[...] company that tries to launch an IP-streaming set top device has a very rough year. — Vudu, Sezmi, etc. [...]
LIVEdigitally » Blog Archive » Scoring my 2008 Tech Predictions on December 27th, 2008 at 2:58 pm - Permalink
this company has lied to investors and cheated them about $40 millions. not bad for a fraud. Its product never worked after more than 2 years development. It may never work.
Even within such a tiny company, 2 offices in Florida and California keep fighting. Management is so dysfunctional to solve any problem.
major fraud. Investors may sue these jokers.
dtv on February 11th, 2009 at 4:42 pm - Permalink
this company never completed Seattle trial. in fact, Seattle was abandoned since Seattle market TV signals can never cover large enough area to justify the service launch. This company lied to everyone about its failure.
dtv on April 27th, 2009 at 5:20 am - Permalink