Forum - View topicNEWS: Geneon USA Lays Off Sales, Marketing Staffers
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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Im shocked they have so few employees. Not to be insensitive to those losing their jobs, but 20% of their staff is only like 8 people. I had kinda picture "massive layoffs". |
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Porcupine
 Posts: 1033 |
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I'm not shocked at all that they had only 39 employees. To me that's what I would have expected. I wouldn't have been surprised if they had less than that. Why does Geneon USA need a lot of employees? What do they do, really? I'm not an expert in the industry but it seems to me that they mostly delegate work to others. For example, the DVD mastering/production is outsourced to companies such as 342Media or SpeeDVD, the dubbing is outsourced to companies like Bang Zoom Entertainment or Ocean Studios, etc. The actual printing of the discs is handled by some other facilities, etc. I don't know if they do the actual subtitle translations themselves or if that is technically handled by the dubbing studios as well. With 39 employees I suppose that's plenty of people to have the script translators be included within that.
It seems to me that a licensing company is mainly responsible for bureaucracy, business negotiations, and marketing. If that's the case then a handful of employees seems sufficient. On the other hand, if you tell me that 39 people includes Geneon + Bang Zoom Entertainment + 342Media, then I'd agree that it is surprising. I had also figured that the amount of people being layed off would amount to only 5 people or so. That's part of the reason I was insensitive to that whole issue to begin with. I didn't see why some people made an issue out of that, I would have thought that the proper thing to do was to simply discuss the impact of these recent developments on the anime industry in general, not to offer condolences to 5 people whom I don't know, that now have to find work elsewhere. |
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RayV
Posts: 30 |
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Well ADV was dubbing FMP for Funi.
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Roy9076
 Posts: 286 Location: California |
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So ADV is finally going to take over Geneon. Bitch! *sigh* Well... that sucks. RIP Geneon.
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testorschoice
Posts: 468 |
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It's 5 people from just the sales team alone. All told, according to the article, more than 20% of its staff will be laid off, more than twice the percentage that Funimation reportedly laid off about two months ago. |
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Josh7289
Posts: 1252 |
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Are anime companies (at least in the US) really that small? Man...39 employees...and now even less. Crazy.
But...I really hate when people get laid off like this, just so someone somewhere can make a few extra bucks. That's the beauty of our economy. 
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Oronae
Posts: 165 |
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I'll point out that 20% still only raises the total by another 2-3 people. I've little sympathy for the marketing team who routinely failed to sufficiently promote various titles and who I feel needed to be replaced. My condolences do however go out to the 2-3 non-marketing people who will suffer from this. |
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bakaShin
Posts: 102 |
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im in agreement, sucks to lose your job but they didn't seem to do their job effectively. nothing significantly changed in terms of pricing or promotion and they just rely on the regulars to buy the new release each week a new title is out. geneon felt the same and let adv handle all of this from what i can see. |
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testorschoice
Posts: 468 |
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It would actually be 8 or more people, since 7 people is under 20% and the article says "more than 20%."
This assumes that it is the fault of the staffers, when insufficient promotion could be caused by a lack of budget (nothing like working like dogs to perform routine tasks under a decimated budget and then getting blamed for "underperforming") or support from above. It may not be the lower rank-and-file's fault, but they still take the fall for it. That's a bummer no matter what. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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I'm sure all those people who lost their jobs were waiting with clenched teeth and baited breath to find out if forums poster "Oronae" had any sympathy for them or not. |
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Defiant8
Posts: 1 Location: North America |
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I do not think that it is a takeover, merger or that Geneon is going under. It does seem as Geneon has outsourced everything else, and this is just a continuation of that trend. There are alot of company that exist that just outsource everything.
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duo05001
 Posts: 18 |
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Just think of how AT&T and Cingular started off. At first, and up to this point they are presented as AT&T and the new cingular. They are still keeping the name for a short period of time I think only untile next year, then all the stores and logos and phones you see that say Cingular on them will dissaper it will become just AT&T. They only keep the name cingular to make the transition smoother and not to lose people who are faithful to cingular (myself) soon you will not see cingular I think 2008 they are going to stop using cingular all together. Any that relates to this because its the same proscess will most likely occur, soon you wont see Geneon appear anymore it will just be ADV. |
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Shale
Posts: 337 Location: The Middle of Nowhere, DE |
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So, does anybody know how many marketing/sales people Bandai Entertainment USA had back in the dark ages four or five years ago, when Geneon did their distribution? I'm wondering how that compares to the emerging structure at Geneon, since obviously Bandai didn't implode dramatically then.
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DarkCntry
 Posts: 61 |
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That is Funimation actually being smart and keeping the casting and most work dealt with a property that is also licensed by ADV consistent. As for this whole lay-off bit, it wouldn't surprise me in the least that they were offered regional positions with ADV, that seems to be what happens when this type of absorption of roles takes place. Of course, it may also be that ADV saw a flaw and decided to start out fresh with Geneon's titles and didn't take any of the layoffs in. Only two groups know and I don't expect either of them to state much. |
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shirou.sama
Posts: 30 |
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heh yeah. though in that situation they are choosing the name with more recognition. Cingular was the one that bought out ATT |
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