14 DAY TRIAL // Cyanogen Inc. is apparently in the process of conducting major layoffs at offices around the world. The information has surfaced over at Android Police, which reports that the headquarters in Seattle are currently the most affected.
The report shows that Cyanogen Inc. is in the process of laying off many of its employees who work on CyanogenMod, which is an open-source operating system for smartphones and tablets, based on Google's Android platform.
This doesn't mean that CyanogenMod will be discontinued, but a large portion of employees will no longer work at the open source department at the company. Specifically, the report indicates that offices in Palo Alto and Seattle were the most affected. Roughly 30 out of 136 employees at Cyanogen Inc. were laid off.
This amounts to 20% of the workforce at the company, and it's unclear at this point if more people will lose their job. Sources have stated that Cyanogen Inc. might actually close its small offices in Lisbon and India, after the company removed community support members as well.
Cyanogen Inc. may be shifting its attention to apps
In addition, the company might be planning to undergo a major strategic shift, as it might actually start focusing on apps, but this is just speculation at this point. The situation at the office in Seattle isn't bright at all, as employees who weren't laid off were reportedly told not to show up at work. Those who did show up had to attend human resources meetings the whole day.
Systems and QA teams at the company were the most affected, and it appears that CyanogenMod might be in trouble, as the company shifts its attention to apps. The pivot seems to be led by Cyanogen's new COO Lior Tal. Cyanogen's main partner was OnePlus, as the company implemented its Cyanogen OS on the OnePlus One. However, the partnership ended, and Cyanogen OS was relegated to some no-name phones in India.