ICv2 has confirmed that ADV has laid off 13 employees over the past two weeks.  An ADV spokesperson told ICv2 that the layoffs were distributed across the company's various divisions and were balanced by the hiring of several new employees.  Even with the additions, the move represents a reduction of ADV's workforce of 114 by nearly 10%.  ADV's layoffs come in the wake of the collapse of a deal that would have seen ADV take over sales, marketing and distribution functions for rival Geneon Entertainment (see 'ADV, Geneon Deal Collapses').

ADV's actions fall into line with a wave of retrenchment that has swept across the American anime industry, which has seen sales drop by at least 10% so far in 2007. Earlier this year market share leader FUNimation cut its workforce by 10% (see 'FUNimation Downsizes').  Then Geneon cut its sales and marketing force after announcing its deal with ADV (see 'ADV to Sell Geneon Products').  After the collapse of the proposed agreement with ADV, Geneon pulled the plug on its post November releases and announced the imminent cessation of order-taking (see 'Geneon Ankles American Anime Industry').