IDW Media Holdings, the parent company of IDW Publishing, announced “significant moves in response to operational challenges,” including the elimination of 39 percent of its workforce.
Their 8-K statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission states that 28 employees were laid off yesterday. “The Board has elected to take these actions to preserve capital and put the Company in a better position possible to unlock value from its assets, including its intellectual property and ability to generate new intellectual property,” it states.
According to a report at The Beat, “the entire marketing and PR staff and half of editorial have been let go, including publisher Nachie Marsham,” who joined the company in 2020 after longtime IDW employees Chris Ryall, Dirk Wood and Alex Cox all left the company. IDW built a solid bench of editorial pros after those changes, and it’s really disheartening to hear that they’re having to go through this.
Some at the top were also let go — Allan Grafman, CEO of IDW Media Holdings, has been replaced by Davidi Jonas. Grafman has only been in that role since August, but was previously on IDW’s Board. Just a few days ago he was talking about the company’s direction on a podcast, where he talked about how “strong” their publishing business was — then they turn around and cut half their staff.
Meanwhile, Davidi Jonas is part of the family that has controlling interest in the company, in what sounds like a Vince/Shane situation:
“Mr. Davidi Jonas is a member of the family that collectively owns a controlling interest in the Company’s equity, and his father, Howard Jonas, serves as IDW’s Chairman and Chairman of the Board.”
The other big change is to their stock. Per the announcement, “The Company has determined to voluntarily delist from the NYSE American exchange and to deregister its Class B common stock,” which means it will no longer be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Their stock has been heading in a downward direction since 2019 and has not been over $2 since February of last year. If a security’s price closed below $1 for 30 consecutive trading days, the NYSE would typically initiate a delisting process. The last time their stock was over $1 was in February.
“The Board determined that going dark is the best path for the Company due to expected cost savings, reduction of pressure on limited resources and the Company’s current inability to realize many of the benefits from continued listing and Exchange Act registration and reporting,” said David Breau, Lead Independent Director on IDW’s Board. “Low trading values and volume has limited our Class B common stock’s liquidity and made it untenable to effectively use our securities as transaction consideration, attract interest from institutional investors or market analysts or provide meaningful incentive to our employees. At the same time, we continued to bear the direct and indirect expenses associated with the NYSE American listing and SEC reporting.”
It’s a dark week for the publisher, whose licensed comics include the popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Sonic the Hedgehog, who have been shoring up their original comics output with the IDW Originals line and who continue to publish great graphic novels through the Top Shelf imprint. Our thoughts are with those whose jobs were cut yesterday as they attempt to move forward.
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