Fandom fires employees at GameSpot, Giant Bomb and Metacritic

Entertainment company Fandom has laid off unspecified numbers of employees at multiple properties, including Fandom. Giant Bomb, GameSpot Metacritic. These properties are mostly focused on publishing content about gaming and TV shows.

A report by VarietyThe company employs approximately 500 people and has had to lay off roughly 10% of its employees across various sites. The surprise announcement by CEO Perkins Miller at an all-hands meeting caught employees off guard. Kotaku.

Fandom is months later and the job cuts are coming months after Fandom acquired a host of brands — Comic Vine, Cord Cutters News, GameFAQs, GameSpot, Giant Bomb, Metacritic, and TV Guide — from Red Ventures in October. TechCrunch was informed at the time that the deal valued at $55 million by sources.

During the acquisition announcement, Fandom said that this deal will help the company “super-serve” its advertising partners and provide fuel for its data platform and gaming e-commerce verticals. Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder, and Angela Beesley founded Fandom in 2004.

Some folks like GameSpot entertainment editor Mat Elfring, video producer Jess O’Brien aka “Voidburger”, and graphic designer Justin Vachon tweeted about frustrating layoffs.

Fandom has been contacted for comment. We will update the story when we hear back.

In the past few months, several entertainment and gaming media outlets were laid off. Some IGN staffers were impacted last month Polygon employees were fired as part of Vox job cuts in July.