Digeo lays off half of its employees, replaces CEO

Merely days ago, Digeo trumpeted a number of Moxi-related partnerships and simultaneously failed to give us any additional details as to when we could expect either of its standalone HD DVRs. Now, we could have a reason why. According to a breaking report from The Wall Street Journal, the firm is axing 50-percent of its staff (leaving 80 employees) and Mike Fidler, CEO, is handing over his position to Greg Gudorf, the company's current president and chief operating officer. As if that weren't enough, the report also claims that Digeo will "not release two digital media recorders that had been planned," and rather, it will "focus on a [single] next-generation consumer model." Notably, we aren't told whether or not said model is the HD DMR that's already out in beta testers' hands, but we suppose only time will tell. [Warning: read link requires subscription]

Update: We've now learned that the oft delayed Moxi Multi-Room HD DMR and the Moxi Home Cinema Edition DMR will not be released. Additionally, we're told that details about the firm's upcoming consumer DMR (which will be released) will be "announced later in the year." Full release posted after the jump.

Digeo Streamlines Retail Product Strategy, Builds New Corporate Structure

Company Reduces Workforce and Prioritizes Next-Generation Retail
Product Development

KIRKLAND, Wash - January 15, 2008 - Digeo, Inc., makers of the Emmy(R)
Award-winning Moxi(R) digital media recorder (DMR), today announced
that the company will focus its product development on fewer platforms
while eliminating some previously announced retail products. As a
result, the company will reduce its workforce by nearly one-half,
mainly in positions that are not critical to development of the new
products.

Mike Fidler, the company's CEO, will help to implement the new
strategy to insure a smooth transition. As part of the transition,
Greg Gudorf, current President and COO of the company, will assume the
CEO role. The two have worked closely as an executive leadership team
at Digeo since late 2005.

"With our revised product strategy, it made sense to realign our
leadership team as well," stated Fidler. "I remain very enthusiastic
about Digeo's mission, its Moxi products, our partnerships and Greg's
leadership capabilities. While the new strategy is absolutely the
right thing to do for Digeo's business, Greg and I both profoundly
regret the personal consequences of this action for our employees who
will be affected."

As a result of its updated product development direction, Digeo will
not release some retail DMR products it had previously announced,
including the delayed Moxi Multi-Room HD DMR and the Moxi Home Cinema
Edition DMR. Instead, Digeo will focus on its next-generation consumer
DMR, which Digeo has been developing at the same time as the cancelled
projects. Details about Digeo's new retail product will be announced
later in the year.

Another announced product, the Moxi HD DVR for Cable, is Digeo's new
product for the cable industry. This product is successfully in trial
now and will be released as planned. All of the company's current
content and development partnerships, including its unique
relationship and product collaboration with Monster Cable will remain
in place for the more tightly focused product strategy.

In other changes, Digeo will re-structure its development team as part
of the new strategy to focus its team on fewer projects and to flatten
the structure of the development organization. Three new engineering
groups will now report directly into the office of the CEO to ensure
greater accountability and transparency.

"As we assessed our situation, it became clear that the best action
for Digeo was to focus our work on the next-generation product for the
retail market," said Gudorf. "Building the software and hardware for
this category is a complex endeavor, with dynamic technical standards,
regulatory issues and content considerations. Previously, we were
spreading our energies across too many platforms. This focused
strategy promises to bring a set of advanced and compelling DMR
features to consumers, at the right cost and at the right time. We
remain committed to bringing the best television experience to our
customers and we are confident that we'll emerge even more successful
as a result of this focusing effort."

About Digeo, Inc.

Digeo, Inc. creates state-of-the-art home entertainment technologies,
including digital media recorder (DMR) platforms and services. The
company's mission is to enable the best consumer experience in
high-definition entertainment for the connected home.

Digeo's flagship product - the two-time Emmy(R) Award-winning Moxi
Media Center - serves as a hub for whole-home distribution of digital
entertainment and more than 400,000 units have been shipped to more
than 100 markets by eight cable operators nationwide. The company also
licenses its technology to third-party companies as the user
interface, application or customer connection portal to drive their
products or services. Backed primarily by Paul Allen's Vulcan, Inc.,
Digeo is based in Kirkland, Wash. For more information, please visit
www.digeo.com. For a virtual demo of the Moxi Menu, please visit
www.moxi.com.

[Apple makes garbage @ Jan 15th 2008 5:20PM]

what the hell is this garbage? this isn't about macs!? Fix this now! add something about the mac extreme firewall blocker w/ candy grip!

[Reid @ Jan 15th 2008 5:44PM]

Another intelligent Microsoft Fanboy makes his voice heard.

As for Digeo, it seems that *releasing an effing product that will bring in revenue* would be the best course of action. But I'm not in upper management, so I can't see the genius of spending R&D dollars, not selling anything, then firing a bunch of people, with a vague plan of somehow developing another product and selling that instead.

[Apple makes garbage @ Jan 15th 2008 7:22PM]

Much love to the moron who calls em before he sees em...
I'm actually very anti-windows but I'm also very anti garbage, and companies like MicroApple make garbage. I'll let you get back to your Ipod photodigiplus dance party 7 remix USA edition :)

[Joe Maki @ Jan 15th 2008 6:56PM]

From the sounds of it, they could just have well laid off another 80. Too bad, I always felt Moxi had potential. I used one of their DVRs for a while and it had some nice features. It never seemed stable though.

[Shawn @ Jan 15th 2008 11:00PM]

I am also one that has used the Moxi and has loved it. While I see that this is a road that doesn't look like anyone will travel and might just be a little rocky.

I am thinking about switching to Direct anyways so this just may be the straw that broke..... you know the rest.

Poor Digeo, You had a good thing going didn't you.

[NuShrike @ Jan 15th 2008 8:00PM]

Coming from a TivoHD user, using some famous words from The Simpsons:
"Ha Ha!".

[jilted @ Jan 16th 2008 12:57AM]

i have been a lucky user of a moxi box for about 3 years with charter cable service. i have been anxious to get my hands on one of those new boxes for a while now. i am sad to see this news. i just ordered my tivo hd dvr. i had access to a 50% off deal and $4/month service so after seeing this news i decided to make the tivo jump. charter keeps telling me that they are about to pull the current tivo boxes because they have since switched to a new (horrible) motorola box. also, if your moxi box breaks you will not get another to replace it. all this adds up to tivo for me. sorry moxi... it's a sad day :(

[Jason @ Jan 24th 2008 2:19AM]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....Well, theres a years waiting to buy a DVR down the drain...THANKS DIEGO!!

[NuShrike @ Jan 27th 2008 3:04PM]

Wow, that could've been years you could've invested in a Slingbox + Tivo.