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Media Blasters Reduces Staff with Layoffs, Furloughs

ANN has confirmed that the North American anime and manga distributor Media Blasters is undergoing a round of staff layoffs and furloughs that began on Friday and will continue through Tuesday. At least 13 employees have been laid off or furloughed; most were from the company's print and accounting departments, but the acquisitions, video production, and sales departments were also affected. The company had less than 50 employees before the layoffs and furloughs.

Media Blasters CEO John Sirabella told ANN that the company hopes to rehire the furloughed employees and explained the circumstances that led to the layoffs: "Recently, some of our larger vendors have slowed down quite a bit, so we have to take precautions." He added, "We are hoping that if we start to see the orders flow back from these vendors, we can bring [the furloughed employees] back later."

Media Blasters had to push back several titles last year, but Sirabella said that the company is trying to make sure that titles on the current schedule will ship on time. He does not anticipate that these layoffs will affect the company's release schedule.