July 02, 2009

By By Antony Bruno, Denver

Off-deck mobile content provider Dada Entertainment has begun laying off a number of employees. The scope of the layoffs is not yet clear, nor is the future disposition of the company.

Dada Entertainment was a joint venture between Sony Music Entertainment and Dada SpA, a European mobile content provider. Last week, Sony pulled out of the joint venture, opting instead to invest directly in its partner, which also operates the Dada.net service.

When the announcement was made, Dada Entertainment said there were no changes expected, and that the company would continue to operate as normal.

Update: According to Dada Entertainment CEO Massimiliano Pellegrini, the layoffs are just a normal part of eliminating the overlapping positions created by the integration of Dada Entertainment into Dada.net. He declined to discuss the full scope of the layoffs.

"Overall we are very excited about this transaction because now the partnership with Sony Music is extended to a worldwide level and we really launch global services leveraging the content agreement that we have with them," he says. "Regarding North America, there are not major changes. We will continue to grow our mobile and music business as we were doing before the deal. We have a lot of exciting projects undergoing."

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