VideoAmp laying off 10% of workforce in the latest measurement shakeup

VideoAmp is laying off 10% of its workforce, or about 45 to 50 people, in what executives of the company said was a result of an evolution in strategic direction for the Nielsen rival. The layoffs come as VideoAmp yesterday announced a $150 million funding round led by Vista Credit Partners, a subsidiary of Vista Equity Partners. That funding was a mix of debt and equity, but the layoffs, which were announced internally last week, were not related to or necessitated by the additional debt, according to people close to the company. Ad Age Media Summit Hear from industry leaders during October event in NYC Register here These people say key areas of focus for the company remain building its media currency trading alternative to Nielsen, media planning and optimization. A VideoAmp spokesperson declined to comment beyond confirming the layoffs and the numbers. Also read: Byron Allen replaces Nielsen with VideoAmp VideoAmp’s layoff comes a week after Nielsen announced a 9% layoff of its global workforce, a similar proportion to that of VideoAmp's cuts albeit off a larger base. Nielsen’s last reported public workforce figure before the layoffs was 15,000, as opposed to under 500 for upstart VideoAmp. The media industry and its measurement side has been hit widely by tighter ad budgets from big advertisers, with Roku last week also announcing a layoff of 10% of its workforce. It all comes amid broader turbulence in the industry as VideoAmp, iSpot.tv and Comscore vie to unseat Nielsen from its dominance in TV and cross-platform media measurement. ISpot CEO Sean Muller, however, made a point of saying that all employees of measurement rival 605, which it announced acquiring yesterday, were keeping their jobs with iSpot. Nielsen attributed its layoffs to a need to align staffing with revenue, and earlier today announced that Nielsen Audience Measurement CEO Karthik Rao has succeeded David Kenny as CEO of the whole company, with Rao’s former position not being filled. Media measurement blog Tracking TV, social and digital updates Click here

VideoAmp laying off 10% of workforce in the latest measurement shakeup

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