Music community site Last.fm is making 20 people redundant in its London headquarters, TechCrunch UK has just posted. Sources said the company was laying off 40 at first - a huge chunk of the 95-person team - but CBS say it is less than 20. Either way, a real blow to London's tech poster boy.
This follows last night's story that CBS Interactive, Last.fm's parent group, is merging the newsrooms of CBSNews.com and CNET. There were eerie hints at this in CBS chief executive Leslie Moonves's comments at the UBS Media conference; though he was talking about the CNET acquisition it does beg the question whether he thinks the same of Last.fm - which is still very far from being a money-spinner. "The CNET deal was in May.… life was very different. We would not be doing that acquisition today." CBS paid $280m for Last.fm.
Paul Carr just summed it up:
CBS1: "Hey, when should we tell loads of people at Last.fm that they're fired?" CBS2: "Day after the Christmas party?"
CBS1: "Awesome!"
