14 DAY TRIAL // Video game publisher THQ has announced, via a regulatory filing, that it will be laying off about 240 employees in the coming months while Brian Farell, who is the current chief executive officer at the company, will agree to take a pay cut of 50 percent to his base salary.
The 240 people to lose their jobs are linked to the sale, administrative and general personnel and come from subsidiaries all over the world.
It seems that the development teams currently working on future THQ publisher video games will not be affected in any way.
Some employees will lose their jobs before the end of March while others will be out of work by September. THQ plans to pay them severance payments which amount to about 8 million dollars (6.07 million Euro).
The salary of CEO Brian Farell will be cut to just 359,250 dollars (272,665 Euro) for one year, until February 13, 2013.
After this period, the company and the executive will review his performance and will then increase it accordingly. Other directors at THQ have also confirmed taking a 50 percent hit to their own salaries.
Earlier during the year, an industry insider claimed that THQ was ready to cancel all video game releases for 2014 and that the company was preparing itself to be acquired by a media conglomerate which would then restructure its business model.
The company has denied the rumors and has since announced that it will be changing its focus, moving away from the family video games, based on licensed properties, that it has been working on in order to focus on core properties.
The company mentioned such franchises like Warhammer 40,000, Company of Heroes, UFC Undisputed, Saints Row and Darksiders.
If it does not manage to keep its share price over 1 dollar for ten days before July, THQ might also be delisted from the NASDAQ stock exchange.