Seattle-based Big Fish Games lays off 250 people — read the memo sent to staff

Big Fish Games’ headquarters in Seattle. (Big Fish Games Photo)

Big Fish Games on Tuesday laid off approximately 250 people as part of a substantial restructuring at the 18-year-old gaming Seattle company.

Big Fish employs more than 600 employees according to LinkedIn, so the cuts impact nearly half its workforce. The layoffs hit all functional groups of the company, primarily affecting employees in Seattle. Big Fish operates another office in Oakland, Calif.

The cuts come just one day after a judge granted preliminary approval of two class action settlements that order the past and current owner of Big Fish to pay $155 million to recover losses incurred by users of its casino-gaming apps.

In a memo sent to staff today (read in full below), co-presidents Andrew Pedersen and Jason Willig wrote that the changes were made “to strengthen our business and position Big Fish for long-term success.” They also wrote that the cutbacks are coming from a “position of financial strength” and that saving money is not “the primary driver behind the changes.”

“The scale that Big Fish developed over many years as a multi-platform publisher has made it difficult to successfully lead in mobile, which requires greater agility and different operating and creative capabilities,” they wrote. “By pivoting how we operate and sharpening focus, we will gain increased flexibility to engage players more effectively today and invest more for the future.”

The job cuts are not related to the economic crisis or the company’s ongoing class action legal battle brought about by plaintiffs who accused Big Fish of violating Washington state laws governing online gambling.

Churchill Downs and Aristocrat Technologies are listed as defendants in the settlements. Churchill Downs acquired Big Fish Games for $885 million in 2014, and sold it to Aristocrat in 2018 for nearly $1 billion.

Churchill, operator of the famous Kentucky Derby racetrack, will pay $124 million of the settlement, while Aristocrat will pay the remaining $31 million.

Big Fish was previously led by former president Jeff Karp, who just joined Electronic Arts. Former CEO Paul Thelen — the former RealNetworks employee who founded Big Fish in 2002 — left following the Aristocrat acquisition.

The company cut about 15% of its workforce in September 2018 as it focused only on developing social casino and casual games.

For the 6-month period ending March 31, Aristocrat said its social casino segment was up 5% year-over-year to $332 million in bookings, but noted that the increase was partly offset by two Big Fish games: Big Fish Casino and Jackpot Magic Slots.

Bookings for Aristocrat’s social casual game segment fell 24% to $118 million during the same time period.

Video game usage has “skyrocketed during the pandemic,” Axios reported last month.

Some of Big Fish’s top mobile titles include EverMerge, Cooking Craze, Toy Story Drop, and Gummy Drop.

Big Fish has 14 open roles on its careers page.

Here’s the full memo to staff sent by Pedersen and Willig.

Big Fish Colleagues,

This morning, we shared news of important changes to strengthen our business and position Big Fish for long-term success. As a result, we are removing approximately 250 positions and announcing several organizational changes. While difficult to face today, these moves reinforce a commitment to players and our mission to become a truly great games company.

The scale that Big Fish developed over many years as a multi-platform publisher has made it difficult to successfully lead in mobile, which requires greater agility and different operating and creative capabilities. By pivoting how we operate and sharpening focus, we will gain increased flexibility to engage players more effectively today and invest more for the future. We are making these changes proactively from a position of financial strength. We will reduce certain costs, but saving money is not a primary driver behind the changes. Rather, our goal is to be a more effective and customer-centric organization.

These decisions are difficult and were made only after careful consideration. We are grateful for the contributions of every departing team member and are committed to treating those leaving the company thoughtfully and with respect. We are providing departing colleagues with a separation package that is above the minimum required to support them through this change.

Throughout today and this week, we will schedule meetings to discuss the changes in more detail and to give you an opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback. In the meantime, answers to some of the immediate questions you may have are set out below.

Which positions are you removing, and how will I know if I’m impacted?

These changes will primarily affect employees in Seattle, where we are making reductions in almost all functional groups. All impacted employees will be notified this morning.

What is changing and why?

We are removing approximately 250 positions and announcing several organizational changes that are designed to deliver three strategic benefits:

Creative Innovation: Under Andrew’s leadership, we are moving to a single studio model. We will expand partnerships with amazing developers like Neskin, Amber, HypGames, Proteus and others. This will support an ambitious product and growth strategy, while increasing flexibility to back new games that show promise.Live Operations & Publishing: We will build a new business performance organization to accelerate analytical capabilities and increase the impact of live services across our portfolio. In addition, we will consolidate studio, social, and performance marketing into a single growth team. Big Fish has amazing casual and social casino franchises that require more love and more effective support. Strengthening the catalog business under experienced, single-threaded owners will create a solid foundation to fuel growth. It will also offer opportunities to innovate and develop the next generation of leaders in our company.Efficiency & Scale: We will redirect more resources to efforts that directly benefit players and create business value increasing our focus and momentum. Developing a more flexible operating model is critical to support these efforts. This means an increasingly decentralized footprint, leveraging talent globally, expanding partnerships and leaning into the great company we are a part of within Digital, and the broader Aristocrat organization.

What does this mean for Big Fish Games and our culture?

As new leaders, we will strive to earn your trust as we protect and nurture all that’s great about Big Fish. Building on this, together we will create a more forward-looking, customer-centric, and diverse culture that fosters innovation and creativity.

What happens next?

This morning, departing colleagues will meet with People & Culture representatives, their team leads and a member of the senior leadership team.Additional meetings will be scheduled later in the day and throughout the week for colleagues whose roles are not impacted. These meetings will further explain the changes, set forth our growth strategy and provide opportunities for questions and feedback.

The focus for today is doing right by departing colleagues. Together with the Big Fish leadership team, our priority is ensuring these changes are communicated with utmost respect and empathy. Starting tomorrow, we are proud and humbled to begin writing a new chapter in Big Fish’s story together, building on a strong foundation with clarity of purpose and confidence in our future.

Andrew & Jason

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Seattle-based threat response startup Stabilitas acquired by OnSolve

Stabilitas CEO Greg Adams.

Critical event management company OnSolve today announced the acquisition of Stabilitas, a 7-year-old Seattle startup that sells threat response software.

Stabilitas combines crowdsourced expert knowledge with technology to help alert customers of safety incidents that may affect traveling employees and other assets. OnSolve offers a similar product.

“Joining OnSolve was a natural fit because we are both focused on keeping people and organizations safe,” Stabilitas CEO Greg Adams said in a statement. “Stabilitas’ AI-powered critical event intelligence coupled with OnSolve’s leading global critical communications solutions will take critical event management to the next level.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Past military experience helped drive Adams and his co-founder Chris Hurst to create Stabilitas in 2013.

Adams was a Special Forces Team Leader in western Afghanistan and helped coordinate with various organizations across business, government, and nonprofits. Hurst was an Army Diver and led engineering teams throughout the Middle East, Asia, and South America before running a risk management team at Mercy Corps. The co-founders attended West Point together and were also classmates at the same program at Harvard.

Stabilitas will remain in Seattle and its 15 employees will join OnSolve, which will maintain the Stabilitas brand. The Seattle startup had raised $5 million to date from investors including Tappan Hill Ventures, TFX Capital, CrowdSmart, AoA, Bellingham Angels, Cascade Angels, Pasadena Angles, and the Santa Barbara Angels.

Adams is now chief strategy officer at OnSolve.

Founded in 2017, OnSolve is based in Alpharetta, Ga., and employs 320 people.

“Our customers will now be able to leverage the latest technological advances to more quickly and accurately anticipate, analyze and manage crises to ultimately keep people safe, informed, assured and productive when it matters most,” OnSolve CEO Mark Herrington said in a statement. “This acquisition also enables us to uniquely provide business resiliency and continuity by combining situational awareness, critical communications as well as incident management.”

Factal is another Seattle startup that helps companies protect employees and assets from threats around the globe.

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Seattle-based ‘alternative VC’ firm Lighter Capital lays off more employees

Lighter Capital cut half of its workforce in another round of layoffs.

The Seattle-based “alternative VC” firm recently laid off 22 people, a company spokesperson confirmed. There are 23 employees remaining.

Lighter Capital slashed 22% of its workforce in a separate round of cuts this past April as it looked to curb expenses amid the pandemic.

The company employed 80 people as of January.

Lighter Capital helps entrepreneurs raise funding without going the traditional route of venture capital. Since launching a decade ago, it has invested more than $200 million in 350-plus companies across the U.S., using an innovative process known as “revenue based financing” (RBF) that lets early-stage startups raise cash without giving up equity or board seats.

The company in January inked a $100 million deal with digital finance firm HCG Fund Management for what CEO Thor Culverhouse described as a “lending vehicle.”

“We believe that in the wake of this terrible situation, we can help the startup community continue to grow and prosper,” Culverhouse wrote in a March 31 blog post. “We’ve adapted quickly to ensure there is no disruption in our financing process, and we are proactively embracing virtual meetings as a safe way to connect with our team.”

Lighter was planning to grow its geographical presence into international markets and explore other forms of debt it can provide to companies. It expanded to Canada earlier this year.

Culverhouse said the firm also intended to raise an equity round later this year to help fund operations. It has raised $20 million in equity to date.

Lighter received between $1 and $2 million from the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program.

Lighter announced Patricia Elliott as chief sales officer and Kevin Fink as chief technology officer this past February.

More than 500 tech startups have axed nearly 70,000 jobs worldwide since March 11.

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