Good Bye Most of Zango Hello Platrium: Phail Scale 7
Posted in Security by wayne.porter on June 18th, 2008 Caught this from Kellie Stevens, Zango is cutting almost 70 jobs and “transforming” itself. I think paperghost and my friends will need to wait on the champagne…the company may be limping, but it isn’t quite dead…read on.
Zango, the controversial online advertising company whose business tactics have been consistently attacked by privacy experts, has laid off 68 employees.
The cutbacks — announced internally Monday — come as the Bellevue provider of pop-up ads attempts to transform into a casual games distributor. The layoffs also come a month after Zango was named one of the best companies to work for in the state by Washington CEO magazine.
Zango had this to say:
“Zango’s top priority for 2008 has been the planning, development and release of Platrium, a unique casual gaming experience launched in beta last month. During this time, it has become clear that this new product is the future of the company and, as a result, Zango is narrowing its focus. This significant shift for the company will impact 68 jobs across the company’s six offices in four countries … . While this was an incredibly difficult business decision which impacts Zango’s amazing base of employees, the company is very excited about its future and new direction with Platrium.”
Platrium? Platrium sounds like some sort of laxative drug or a new form of anti-psychotic…
Do you feel like crap? Constipated? Talk to your doctor about Platrium! Guaranteed to work overnight.
Sources said that two executives also departed, Executive Vice President of Corporate Development York Baur and Chief Technology Officer Ken Smith. Smith, who co-founded the company in 1999, is the brother of Chief Executive Keith Smith. A Zango spokesman declined to comment on the departures.
I don’t think there is much they can say. You came, you saw, and you were torn too bits.
Zango, formerly 180solutions, has been criticized over the years for installing its ad-serving software without computer users’ knowledge and making the uninstall process difficult to navigate. In 2006, the company settled a dispute with the Federal Trade Commission and agreed to pay a $3 million fine.
Like the artist formerly known as Prince. I am proud I have been one of those zealots (among others) who have criticized them over the years.
So long and thanks for all the fish. I doubt the FTC will do much about Platrium, but it does sound like a drug so maybe the FDA might get involved. This is proof positive that people really don’t like garbage on their computer. No matter what kind of “value proposition” you think you have. I enjoyed the steel cage matches.
Pwnage Value +50
PhailScale Score: 7
Popularity: 4% [?]
When I realize that this is what passes for reasoned discourse amongst Zango’s sharpest critics, it gives me a great deal of hope that Zango is on exactly the right path. Criticism this inane should surely be interpreted as high praise.
Ken Smith (former Zango CTO and still Zango cheerleader)
Ken,
When did you get the idea the post was a conversation? I ended conversations long based on Zango’s HISTORY…which is well documented and frankly quite lacking. I mean get real…you need some movies or jpgs, etc?
Nothing personal- but I do not care for Zango…I am hardly your sharpest critic…the model “sounds” good…but Zango never had or really tried to control the distribution base. Proof in the pudding.
For the record- people should have the right to download zango (if there is reasonable and obvious consent not some “sendkeys” attack…why they would seek it out is beyond me…
-Wayne
Wayne,
I think I’ve taken that Platrium stuff once… but it was a dietary supplement that made everything you eat leave a bad taste in your mouth for weeks
Still, a rose by any other name… I’d like to just see them, well, not be seen.
–Allen
heh Allen…tastes like Castor Oil
I agree — and Zango has long acknowledged — that Zango didn’t do enough back around 2004 to control its publisher network. But I sharply disagree with any hint that Zango hasn’t fixed that problem and then some. I was there, and I helped design and implement the systems and processes that have since made Zango’s problems with its publisher network a thing of the past. Absolutely, Zango screwed up, and as I’ve said before, the $3MM fine Zango paid to the FTC was chump change compared to the problems that screw-up caused to Zango in other ways. But those problems are years in the past, and compared to the issues with fraud that companies like Google, eBay and Yahoo continue to experience, Zango is whistle-clean at this point. If anybody knows anything different (Ben Edelman’s silly rants about fake buttocks don’t count), I (and Zango) would love to hear it.
“Zango is whistle-clean at this point”
Care to define “whistle-clean” for us?
[...] just goes on and on and on…see some random date in 2006 or a more frequent rant. (see [...]