Ask HN: Who is firing? (January 2017)
Previous thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13081362
Previous thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13081362
They (used to) make a custom Android distribution for manufacturers, CyanogenOS. They grew out of an open source project, CyanogenMOD, but their business people apparently could not find a good way to monetize a phone OS, so most of not all of their developers (30 out of 130 employeed) were apparently laid off or quit. They have apparently turned to providing system-level apps, and a Reddit user who claims to have been a former employee says that they plan to create a Google Now competitor by mining data from 3rd party apps.
The company has completely withdrawn support from the open source OS it grew out of, but some of its developers will continue its development under the brand LineageOS.
Sources: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/07/report-cyanogen-inc-t... https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/5k55vo/the_dea...
Medium just announced they are cutting 50 jobs (1/3 of their team) largely in sales, support and business roles