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Otter Media Lays Off 10% of Staff in Restructuring
posted on by Karen Ressler
AT&T's digital media company Otter Media, the holding company that operates Crunchyroll and VRV's parent company Ellation, laid off about 10% of its staff as part of a company reorganization on Wednesday. Otter Media employs about 1,400 people, so the layoffs will affect about 140 full-time employees and contractors.
Variety reported that the layoffs spanned most of Otter Media's divisions, but Ellation was not affected.
As part of the restructuring, Rooster Teeth (RWBY) is now part of Ellation, and Machinima will be folded into Otter Media beginning on January 1.
AT&T announced in August that it had acquired the entirety of Otter Media from its previous co-owner The Chernin Group. AT&T announced at the time that it planned to fold the company into WarnerMedia, the new content company created after AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner in June.
Since the acquisition, WarnerMedia closed the DramaFever streaming service on October 16, resulting in layoffs for 20% of the company's 110 employees. WarnerMedia also closed the FilmStruck streaming service on November 29.
Sources: Deadline (Dawn C. Chmielewski), Variety (Todd Spangler)
