Slide
GigaOm first reported the news last night, after obtaining a copy of the email chief executive Max Levchin sent to the team and confirming the news with Levchin. The PayPal co-founder said that, financially, it makes more sense for Slide to pursue the bigger ad campaigns and sponsorships (in the $500,000 range), rather than spend time and energy on smaller deals.
Lily Lin, Slide's director of communications, sent me a few more details:
Unfortunately, we did part ways with most of our sales force yesterday. We've made the decision to strategically shift away from selling standard ad units to selling higher-margin premium advertising such as brand sponsorships. The number of people impacted was in the single digits. To support this shift in our sales approach, the plan is to build a team focused on these higher-end sponsorship opportunities.
We've reported that Slide is currently making around $20 million a year in advertising. The company has raised a total of $58 million in venture backing -- back in January 2008, it raised most of that money at an eye-opening $550 million valuation. (Shortly afterward, competitor RockYou raised a round at what we heard was a $200 to $230 million valuation.) Of course, the economy and ad market have changed dramatically since then, but I would imagine Slide's feeling pressure to at least partially justify those numbers.