Softonic fires 66% of its employees

Author of the article here. Just wanted to share a small update to this story.

Basically, on the day of the announcement of the layoffs, Softonic also announced that it was acquiring a SF-based company: http://novobrief.com/softonic-employees-layoffs/

Sometimes the children I teach want to install the software we use at home. For some pieces of software, Softonic is on the first page of search results for the name of the software. It's usually half-way down (used to be more near the top, thankfully this changed).

I always warn them to never ever get their software from Softonic, but instead always make sure you end up on the official site for the computer program. Because on numerous occasions, downloads from Softonic came with "extras", a toolbar or changing your default search engine / homepage, or pop-ups telling that their computer is "at risk"[0].

I'm always very careful explaining this because the last thing I want to happen is some computer-clueless parent installing software for their super-smart kid, getting all sorts of ad- and spyware along the way.

So my point is, I'm a bit ambivalent? On the one hand, yes I absolutely think it's terrible that all these people will be losing their jobs. It's a pretty big hit (though not as big as what Opera did...). On the other hand, what this company was doing ... was it creating value for anyone?

[0] well, I won't lie to them and tell them that indeed it is, unfortunately there's absolutely nothing they can do about it (I usually tell them to at least get MSE, an adblocker and maybe Ghostery, but that does nothing to protect you from scammers, phishing, or governments).

I remember the days when softonic was "the" place to go to discover new software. Then the whole site started to become shady with SMS for fast downloads and whatnot. At that point I stopped trusting the site completely, I guess I was not the only one.

450 employees!!?? At least ten times what I would have ever guessed. I'd be surprised if mac update had more than 4.5 employees.

Location: Spain. Is anyone really surprised?