"We have run out of money. We just couldn't sell enough advertising to cover our expenses even though our audience has almost tripled," a company spokesperson lamented today.
Live programming would end on Monday evening and all eYada's 70 employees would be laid off. It is not immediately clear what would happen with the company's assets, which includes mostly talk show archives and streaming media technology.
Last March, eYada, headquartered in New York, scored a whopping $25 million in funding from a group of investors led by Chase Capital Partners. Other investors included Time Warner, Boston Millennia Partners, Chase Capital Entertainment Partners and Credit Suisse First Boston.
The original plan was to create a network of Web-based talk shows and grab a significant -- and trackable - audience. By February this year, eYada had created 140 hours of live programming weekly.
However, the slowdown in online ad spending severely affected eYada, forcing layoffs and program cancellations in January. Back then, the privately-held firm listed poor user attendance as the main factor for closing the programs.
Layoffs reduced the company's staff of 100 to 70 as eYada consolidated to 13 live programs.
eYada, which streamed live programming on everything from entertainment, sex, gossip and comedy, was clearly in the early stages of building a notable media brand and could not find enough advertising to cover overhead.
eYada, which broadcasted from a new state-of-the-art studio in the heart of Times Square, counted personalities like Lionel, Richard Johnson, 'Rush & Molloy' among its hosts.
LATEST NEWS
Microsoft's Dynamics ERP to Gain New Services
Barnes & Noble's e-Reader Nook Sold Out Already
Memory Market Due for Big Shift in 2010
Microsoft: No 'Back Door' in Windows 7
Tech's H-1B Hiring Faces 'Employ America Act'





Digg
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Google
StumbleUpon
Technorati
More stories by this author
