TechWag

Eons is still the brain child of Jeff Taylor CEO of Eons, where 50+ folks would want to social network on line. Good idea, maybe though 20 to 30 years before their time. Many of our parents are lucky they can use e-mail, barely surf the internet; no one really expects that social networking when computer skills are lacking is going to be something that is going to be flocked too.

And sure enough, the axe has arrived.

Although if you had a commercial like the one below, we can understand why “Boom Boom Boom” sounded more like the sounds of shelling artillery in Vietnam and Korea rather than a rallying cry to go social network.

1/3 of the staff is now history, 24 folks layed off last night.

Despite any trauma of the layoffs, the retrenching seems to have been a much-needed move. Both General Catalyst and Sequoia reportedly pressed for the changes, saying the company was too big and unfocused. Eons’ site right now has nine major categories: people, fun, love, money, body, lifepath, obits, games, and travel. According to the company and our source, it will no longer pursue areas like obits (offering online obits was a core premise of Eons at its founding) and travel, which are time consuming and costly to keep updated with fresh content. “Obits and travel, they’re just probably going to be spun off,” the source said. “They really need more investment, more concentrated focus.” Source: xconomy

Techcrunch, Mashable, and bloggers blog are also carrying the news. The question we are interested in asking though is Eons ready for the dead pool in much the same way that Tail Rank is ready for the dead pool. You have to have users to social network, and a target audience of 50+ might just a bit much to ask for.

Tags: layoff, business //