Mobe software firm Picsel prunes 10% of workforce

File-viewing specialist Picsel last week laid off about 10 per cent of its workforce as it shelved plans for an IPO and refocused its business.

Picsel has done well getting its file-viewing application embedded into handsets, including LG's Viewty, but having decided the market isn't ready for an IPO the company is going to refocus its efforts on selling interfaces to network operators and handset manufacturers.

Given the plethora of companies offering to help operators make money out of data you might think the problem would be solved, but Picsel believes it has the technology and the skills to create an interface that makes profitable data a reality, even going so far as to describe it as "beyond the iPhone experience".

This new focus left the company with a workforce knocking 400 that was "out of balance with revenue", according to CFO Richard Guest, leading to the cull of those with the "wrong blend of skills for our growth structure".

Picsel expects to have a new interface platform by the end of 2008, which will support the third-party widgets now mandatory for anyone wanting to be taken seriously in mobile Web 2.0 world.

The company will focus on trying to up-sell to manufacturers already buying their file-viewer, as well as pitching the new interface to network operators. ®