News
Gonzo to Restructure, Reduce Staff Count from 130 to 30 (Updated)
posted on by Egan Loo
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun paper reports on Friday that the Japanese company GDH is restructuring its animation studio Gonzo. Within five years, Gonzo will reduce its current creative staff of 130 to 30. GDH hopes the move will return Gonzo to profitability in those five years after slowing DVD sales took the company into red-ink territory.
GDH asked for about 50 of its employees, or about 20% of its workforce at the time, to "voluntarilty retire" late last year, but only 36 responded and agreed to its severance package of one month's pay. With the new restructuring plan, more jobs will be cut, and the business operations of GDH's anime unit will be drastically reduced. With only 30 in its production staff under the restructuring plan, Gonzo will not be able to proceed with anime projects on its own.
GDH's core business has shifted from anime, as Gonzo went into red ink, to its online gaming operations. (Last year's voluntary retirement program applied to GDH and Gonzo employees, but not to Gonzo Rosso, GDH's online game subsidiary.)
Source: animeanime.jp
Update: Added more background information and image.
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