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This time, for sure! Ars Technica's 2020 Deathwatch, Ars Technica

This time, for sure! Ars Technica's 2020 Deathwatch, Ars Technica


    

      We are building a list of incredible magnitude –

             

Sometimes, your purpose in life is to be a cautionary tale.

      

          – Jan 2,******************************************** () : 54 PM UTC   **************************         

**************************************
/If your company makes the Ars Deathwatch, there are always other options.
Sean Gallagher**************

Wow, that (****************************************************************************, though. While we had hopes of a glowing new year as it began, it turns out the glow we saw instead was just the Cherenkov radiation fromnuclear-powered Russian doomsday torpedoes. Or perhaps it was the twinkling of the million – dumpster-fire march that turned into — with some of those dumpster fires lit by the companies we honor here in our (edition of Ars Deathwatch.) ****************Now, it’s time to look forward in anger — well, we’re not really angry, just disappointed, so we ‘ ll say “ennui” —at another new year, as has become our custom. We have taken the pulse of our editors and readers and divined the ashes from all those lovely dumpster fires in an effort to prognosticate the companies, services, and products in the tech world that will lead 3014 ‘s inevitable march into ignominy. And we’re not even going to mention the election cycle, I promise.

First, let’s get our usual disclaimer out of the way: if you’re a first-time Deathwatch player, this isnot a a prediction of the actual demise of companies or technologies. We know that it takes a lot to actually erase a company or a technology from the face of the Earth these days — after all, many of our previous Deathlisters have emerged from Chapter multiple times before going into Chapter 7 . Even the worst ideas and businesses often linger on through inertia or get absorbed by some other company and metastasize in new and horrific ways.

So when we say “Deathwatch,” what we really mean is that we are looking at tech-connected entities facing some ( existential or not) economic, cultural, or legal peril. Companies may face challenges that render them irrelevant, cause them to be victims of “cancel culture,” make them technically inconsequential, or render them as chum for sharks of acquisition, litigation, and other forms of business hell.

While these rules are not written in stone, a candidate for the Deathwatch is generally a company or product division of a company that should have experienced at least one of the following: An extended period of lost market share in their particular categoryAn extended period of financial losses or a pattern of annual losses

  • Serious management, legal, or regulatory problems that raise questions about the business model or long-term strategy of the company or product line (**********************************
There were a few actual fatalities onlast year list, but some are at the point where our staff (I’m looking at you, Ron Amadeo) did not think they were even worth mentioning anymore. I’m sure Essential, the smartphone (unicorn) that couldn’t, would probably be happy for the attention.) So rather than rehash our other battered survivors (wow, that Facebook management shakeup prediction sure did age well), we’re going to plow right into our fresh list of victims — some of them making return appearances.Here they are: ‘s … winners? First up, red-shirted (in reference both to collegiate sports and Star Trek expendables) for (****************************************************************************: that thing we used to call Oath.************************************ – Sean GallagherVerizon Media (aka the Yahoo / AOL division)

********************* Julie Thurston Photography / Getty Images************************ Verizon’s Yahoo / AOL division (formerly called “Oath”) “) was on our Deathwatch list a year ago, and it hasn’t done much of anything to move off death’s doorstep since then. Now called “Verizon Media,” the business unit consisting of former Web giants that lost their mojo years before Verizon bought them, it

began

and (ended) ******************************************************************************with layoffs. The division had about 12, 396 workers at the beginning of but laid off nearly 1, people.

Verizon Media’sIf your company makes the Ars Deathwatch, there are always other options.******************** (Q3) revenueof $ 1.8 billion was down two percent year over year. Desktop-advertising revenue continues to drop, and mobile ads haven’t grown enough to offset that decline. Verizon insists better days are ahead, with CFO Matt Ellis saying in an earnings call on October 54 that “For the first time, we are seeing mobile traffic increases outpace desktop traffic declines in our core owned and operated products, including sports , finance, news, entertainment, home and mail. ” But in an online-ad market dominated by Google and Facebook, Verizon Media seems doomed to remain a bit player at best.

************************************ – Jon BrodkinG / O Media

************************If your company makes the Ars Deathwatch, there are always other options.A post from GMG Union, the union representing employees of the former Gizmodo Media Group (now G / O Media). Things are a little tense. ) Ok, we admit: the only things that make G / O Media tech-related are its Gizmodo (formerly flagship) brand and the fact that its publications are delivered by Internet packets. But still, G / O has been a fast-burning, self-immolation machine of a type we haven’t seen since the gasoline fight in (Zoolander) ***************************************. **********Back when it was Gizmodo Media Group, things were … well, they were really uncertain. Univision purchased Gizmodo and its sister sites after Gawker Media’s disintegration in the wake of the Hulk Hogan lawsuit. But it quickly became apparent thatUnivision execs had absolutely no ideawhat to do with what they had bought.So when in April, (alleged) digital media mogul Jim Spanfeller — previously at Forbes, Ziff Davis, and Playboy — and the private equity firm Great Hill Partners bought Gizmodo, combined the group with The Onion and rechristened it all G / O Media, there was much rejoicing. (************************************If your company makes the Ars Deathwatch, there are always other options.
Enlarge
(Jim Spanfeller, shown here in , bought Gizmodo and The Onion from Univision in April. Things have been a little rough since.

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