Kim Kardashian game maker Glu Mobile lays off some staff

Glu Mobile, the maker of celebrity mobile games such as Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, has laid off a number of employees, GamesBeat has learned.

San Francisco-based Glu has been making mobile games since 2001, and it is publicly traded. The company reported net income of $8.1 million on revenue of $223.1 million in 2015. Much of the revenue came from the hit celebrity lifestyle game, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood. Glu has been running with that strategy, and it has amassed the rights to make games about celebrities who collectively have more than 1 billion social followers. It has released games on Kendall & Kylie Jenner and Katy Perry. And it is preparing games for Britney Spears, Nicky Minaj, Gordon Ramsay, and Taylor Swift.

Glu chief executive Niccolo De Masi has maintained a portfolio strategy, and he has been making games based on Glu’s other franchises as well, including Deer Hunter, James Bond, and others. Glu declined to comment for this story.

But we have heard about the layoffs from a couple of different sources. The teams affected, according to one source, are in Long Beach, Calif. and San Mateo, Calif. It’s not clear why the company has laid off people, but it may have something to do with the weakness for some titles, such as the Katy Perry and James Bond games.

For the most recent quarter ended Dec. 31, Glu reported non-GAAP revenue was $57.9 million, down from $76.2 million a year earlier. On a GAAP basis, Glu recorded a loss of $3 million for the quarter, down from a $1.4 million profit last year. Non-GAAP profit was $2.3 million, compared to a profit of $12.2 million in Q4 2014.