LONDON (Brand Republic) - Walt Disney is shutting down its internet portal Go.com and cutting 400 jobs from its internet division.
The media company will absorb the separately quoted Internet Group into the parent company and will focus on its other web properties such as ESPN.com and ABC.com.
The move means that New York advertising agency Cliff Freeman & Partners will lose the estimated $40m (£27.4m) Go.com account which it won last March.
It is understood that Go.com was Disney’s slowest-growing web property. Launched as a general search portal in November 1999, it was revamped in October 2000 to focus on entertainment and leisure. According to analysts, users and page views grew by 20% over the last 18 months, while Disney’s other sites grew between 50% and 75%.
The portal lost $395m (£270.9m) last year and its revenue suffered from the downturn in the advertising market.
The redundancies will be made over the next few months and will mostly come from Disney’s Sunnyvale offices. In the second quarter, Disney will take a $790m (£542m) write-off for the restructuring, as well as posting write-offs of $25m-$50m (£17m-£34m) for severance and other costs.
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