Glu restructure will close two studios, cut 100+ jobs
Up to 140 employees face dismissal as mobile publisher attempts to streamline US operations, but firm plans to hire again by end of 2017
Glu Mobile has detailed restructuring plan that will result in the closure of one, possibly two, of its studios and see more than 100 layoffs.
A filing posted on Seeking Alpha shows the company will definitely "[eliminate] approximately 107 positions", including 12 at its San Francisco headquarters and 95 spread across is Bellevue, Washington and Long Beach, California studios.
The Bellevue studio is actually scheduled for closure with all operations discontinued. The fate of the Long Beach outfit will depend on the planned beta release of Car Town Racing. Should the game not take off, this branch will also be closed, laying off an additional 33 employees and upping the number of jobs cut to around 140.
Glu stresses this is "consistent with the actions [taken] during 2016 to streaming its operations", referring to the closure of its Beijing and San Mateo studios as well as another branch in Bellevue. Last year, it confirmed that it had cut 100 jobs over the course of five months after suffering losses in Q1.
The company also stresses that it aims to hire elsewhere within the company, specifically adding to the headcounts in Hyderabad, India and the San Francisco Bay Area. These hires will support currently successful games and develop new titles, with the aim to keep Glu's overall staff count the same at the end of 2017 as it was at the beginning.
As part of the restructuring, Glu will also pass development and live operations responsibilities for Racing Rivals to mobile studio Carbonated. Glu will provide Carbonated with development funding and a percentage of the profits depending on how will the firm improves the revenues generated by the game.
Glu expects to incur charges of up to $3.5m before tax if it only closes the Bellevue studio, although this will rise to $5.4m if the Long Beach studio is also shut down.
Despite the bleak outlook for these studios, Glu seems to be faring well in other respects. Last month, it acquired QuizUp developer Plain Vanilla for $1.2m.