Fandom.com, one of the largest U.S. retailers of comics, collectible toys, and other pop culture products is shedding staff and preparing for a sale.  The company, which had downsized by 20% in January (see 'Fandom Replaces CEO'), terminated twenty employees last Friday, and announced today, April 2, that it is in the process of 'reducing its online operations.'  Citing 'market instability and funding difficulties,' Fandom CEO Debra Streiker-Fine  posted an 'Open Newsletter to Our Fans' on the Fandom site today in which she noted that, '...we are in the process of being acquired and these cuts (layoffs) were part of this effort.'  She noted that Fandom's most high profile off-line divisions, Creation Entertainment and Cinescape Magazine are doing 'business as usual,' and she assured customers of Fandom's on-line shops that the company is continuing to ship orders and that customers will not be charged for any merchandise they have ordered until that merchandise has shipped.  It also appears that orders continue to be taken by the online store. 

 

Fandom was founded by former investment banker Mark Young in September of 1999.  The company quickly acquired a number of fan sites, the most famous of which was Star Trek Central.  Fandom's retail operations (catalogue and on-line) were acquired from Another Universe (then owned by Steve Geppi) in early 2000.  Convention operator Creation Entertainment and magazine and site operator Cinescape were acquired later that year.  The changing financial climate for dot coms, especially retail or ad-supported sites (Fandom is both) has proven very difficult for the company.  According to Streicker-Fine, 'For the last three months we have had... a series of opportunities to take Fandom to the next level, but the depressed marketplace has forced many companies to close, especially affecting online companies.'  In earlier efforts to streamline its operations Fandom shed the Another Universe staff, outsourced its online retail sales and stopped publishing A.U.'s highly regarded Mania Magazine. The ultimate fate of Fandom's online retail operations depends on finalizing the acquisition process in which the company is current engaged.  The Fandom press release mentions slimming down its online operations, not eliminating them, but any long  range continuation of online retailing appears to depend on finding a company that will acquire and maintain that capability. 

 

The fate of Fandom's popular Newsarama section, and indeed of all the various Fandom news domains that cover science fiction, movies, anime, and comics, remains in doubt. The most recent news stories on the Fandom areas of the site were dated March 28, but it appears that the individual domains, which are operated by semi-independent webmasters,  continue to be updated.  Fandom's offline holdings including the convention producing Creation Entertainment, which held the popular Star Trek & Sci-Fi Grand Slam Convention in Pasadena over the past weekend, appear to be in a business as usual mode.  Both Creation and Cinescape Magazine were profitable before they were acquired by Fandom, and both should continue to function without interruption.  Fandom has not released any information about its potential suitor, although TrekToday.com is reporting (also picked up by Comicon.com/Splash) that it is pop culture content aggregator UGO, which raised $23 million in fifth round financing (and laid off 40 people) earlier this year (see 'Pop Culture Content Sites').  UGO has not previously been involved in retailing, and there is no mention in the TrekToday report that UGO is discussing buying anything other than the online content operation.  Developing.