Live video service Ustream just announced “a small restructuring” of the workforce that will result in cutting approximately 6 percent of the current team. The company said the restructuring, along with the hiring of two new vice presidents, is an attempt to focus on sales of its Pro Broadcasting products and to move toward profitability.
A company spokesperson told me that after today, Ustream will have a global headcount of 191 across its San Francisco, Los Angeles, Budapest, Korea, and Japan offices. They also said that despite the cuts, the company is still growing, with more than 15 employees already hired this year and more than 25 open positions (16 of which are in sales).
Ustream says that it’s increasingly becoming a SaaS business, namely one that makes money by selling software (as opposed to ads). It also says that the Pro product line has grown 150 percent year-over-year, and was recently used to live stream the Sony PlayStation 4 launch, which 1 million people watched concurrently.
To move further in that direction, Ustream is also announcing that it has hired two executives from enterprise video service Ooyala — James Nielsen, previously Ooyala’s director of sales, is now vice president of subscription sales at Ustream, and Dave Gibbons, formerly director of solutions marketing, is now vice president of product marketing. (Both are apparently new positions.)
In the press release announcing the changes, CEO Brad Hunstable says that Ustream is now working with 15 million live broadcasters who reach 80 million monthly viewers: “We expect to grow our Saas Pro Broadcaster business even faster this year as we add sales capacity and customer success resources to help monetize our huge base of freemium broadcasters.”