3VR Significant Layoffs

CP
Carlton Purvis
Published Jun 28, 2013 04:00 AM
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3VR has laid off 15 employees, five of which are from its sales team, IPVM has learned. This leaves the company with a skeleton crew of three sales reps to cover the entire United States, according to a source with knowledge of the layoffs. 

On Thursday a current employee confirmed that there had been some staff changes, saying the person with the most information on the topic would be Jim Underwood, 3VR's Vice President of Worldwide Sales.

However, another source noted, "He may be harder to get a hold of because now he's got to figure out what he's going to do now with 50 percent less. How are you going to generate leads for the channel if you don't have anyone doing lead generation anymore?"

We contacted 3VR to discuss the changes and the company's future plans, but calls and emails to its corporate office and public relations firm have not been returned.

Multiple sources say employees received an email a day prior to the layoffs announcing a meeting about restructuring. All sources speculated that there were upcoming plans for an acquisition. 

"I think what they may be doing is lining themselves up for a quick sale. They've taken in more funding than any company in the history of CCTV and still aren't profitable. I think the board has asked them to reduce their headcount to free up all that cash and kind of extend the runway a little bit longer," one said. The company has not raised the most money, but it has raised more than $50 million in its 11 years, which is significant for a surveillance company. Additionally, its performance has been above average compared to video analytic companies in a space where many have struggled to be successful. However, the company has never come close to fulfilling its original ambitions to become 'Google for Surveillance'.

Thursday Meeting

In Thursday's meeting the company's CEO officially announced the layoffs, said the company will scale back operations in the Midwest and that it would only have one sales rep per region (a total of four), according to sources. There was no mention of an acquisition. 

Recent PR Campaigns

3VR's most recent PR blitz involved numerous interviews with major media organizations after the Boston Bombing. 3VR was cited in articles in the New York Times, USAToday and CNET about its facial recognition technology saying it could cut investigation time from weeks to hours. But it seems the blitz did little to generate enough interest in the company to change its trajectory.

These changes lead to many questions about 3VR's future the future of similar companies. We will update this post as we receive more information. 

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