Napster, the metaverse company formerly known as Infinite Reality, has laid off some of its staff, GamesBeat has learned.
A spokesperson for the company confirmed the cuts to GamesBeat. We don’t yet know how many people have been affected.
“We parted ways with some of our staff as a result of workforce redundancies and overlaps stemming primarily from the acquisitions we’ve made over the past 18 months,” the spokesperson said.
For context, the company raised a lot of money — reportedly several billion dollars — in pursuit of acquisitions to build a metaverse company. It’s more fashionable to say immersive virtual worlds, but you get the idea.
Then it acquired Napster, the reborn digital music company, and then changed its name to Napster. Now it’s integrating the teams and streamlining its operations.
Infinite Reality recently bought Napster for $207 million, and the Infinite Reality renamed itself as Napster Corp. in the wake of its $500 million acquisition of Touchcast. Now it is focusing on providing the next generation of digital media and e-commerce.
The deals under Infinite Reality included acquisitions of Obsess, Stakes, Drone Racing, Ethereal and Action Face. It also bought a majority stake in Super League Gaming. Back in January, Infinite Reality said it raised $3 billion at a valuation of $12.25 billion. And in 2024, the company raised $350 million and bought Landvault.
After some pressure from investors and others, Napster said that Sterling Select, a venture development firm associated with Sterling Equities and the Katz family, represented the investor who invested a significant portion of the $3 billion investment that the company announced earlier this year.
The spokesperson said, “These are difficult but expected steps in the course of integrating teams and streamlining operations. We continue to employ hundreds of full-time team members around the world—including nearly 100 engineers and hundreds of talented professionals across product development, marketing, and operations—and we remain focused on executing against our vision with clarity and momentum.”
Most recently, the new Napster announced two new AI products: the Napster Companion conversational AI platform with intelligent agents; and Napster View, a 3D second-screen device for two-way spatial conversations.