i-mate’s US outpost is a History, most laid off
The news went out today by a number of employees — or ex-employees to engadget that i-mate’s US division in Redmond, Washington has all but disintegrated after a Friday bloodbath that saw the entire engineering, Q&A, and tech writing departments laid off. Among others several honchos who weren’t cut left anyway notably, the Chief Software Officer and VP of Sales and Marketing are both gone, leaving a sales director to be promoted to the lofty title of GM of what seems to be all US operations. Apparently, the Dubai-based firm is in the hurt locker after its inability to get the Ultimate line (also known as “the basket with all of i-mate’s eggs in it”) fully deployed to retail channels in the time frame it had hoped, and meeting massive resistance from US carriers to carry the devices, it’s been left with no option but to leave behind just enough employees to set up and maintain a web-based portal for purchasing unlocked devices in the States. Wow, its is just sad seeing how a company failes only for one product line. An to those who’ve been handed your walking papers, we wish you the best of luck.
Filed Under: Other Brand • Windows Mobile • smartphone
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