Sulake Shrinks By +28

Good coverage of Sulake's "transition" at Arctic Startup Blog:

Back in October we wrote about the negotiations Sulake was having with its employees about reducing the work force. The plan back then was to reduce the workforce by 20%, which would have meant something along the lines of 40 people. They ended up sacking 28 people, to cut costs, and thus stayed well below the initial plan of 20%. Juhani Lassila, their Communication Exec stated in the Finnish M&M article that the current restructuring and cuts have dramatically improved their profitability. While 28 people were fired, I’ve heard from close sources that others have left the company of their own will and the environment isn’t all that lively inside the company. This of course is completely natural when a startup that has grown to a multinational gaming house has its first real employee negotiations and ends up cutting its workforce by this much. Not all things are bad. The Finnish teen power house has revealed plans to integrate Habbo Hotel deeper into Facebook with their new FB application. The application is a simple port of the real Habbo Hotel. Sulake has also finally included the Facebook login on their Habbo Hotel sites globally, which means there’s a shot at better registration conversions as people have a quick way to sign-up. I have to say that it does amaze me how long it has taken Sulake to go forwards with this step. Sulake is currently piloting the Facebook application in the UK market, however not limiting it artificially to UK users only. You can find it in Facebook and test it out for yourself. The application has over 40 000 monthly users which is a clear sign that the plan to integrate into Facebook works. There are no plans on when they will be releasing the application to other countries. It might not matter in the end as most of the innovative users no doubt have already found it and have started building their presence there. http://www.arcticstartup.com/2009/12/17/sulake-fires-28-and-signals-plans-for-facebook/#more-12029