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Shortform streaming platform Quibi has been forced to shut down, six months after it launched.
The founders of the startup, former Disney Studio chief and DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Meg Whitman, broke the news on Wednesday (October 23).
“We feel that we’ve exhausted all our options,” Katzenberg and Whitman wrote in an open letter to Quibi’s staff, investors and partners.
“As a result we have reluctantly come to the difficult decision to wind down the business, return cash to our shareholders, and say goodbye to our colleagues with grace.”
They added: “We want you to know we did not give up on this idea without a fight.”
The letter explained “the circumstances were not right for Quibi to succeed as a standalone company” and that the company is now looking for buyers to take over the assets.
They continued: “We want you to know that we got up every day and genuinely loved coming to work with the most remarkable and passionate team that we have ever assembled.
“We will be forever proud of the extraordinary partnership we were able to forge between the best of Hollywood and Silicon Valley.”
Earlier this year, Quibi revealed it lost 90 per cent of its subscribers after their free trial periods expired, Kaztenberg revealed. In an interview with the New York Times, he said, “I attribute everything that has gone wrong to coronavirus. Everything. But we own it.”
He added: “Is it the avalanche of people that we wanted and were going for out of launch? The answer is no. It’s not up to what we wanted. It’s not close to what we wanted.”
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