Calvin Ayre and his Bodog Empire have received plenty of mainstream media coverage (BC Business, Vancouver Sun, Forbes, etc.) over the past couple years however their recent round of layoffs have remained under the radar. Gambling news sites and Vancouver forums have been buzzing since Bodog-related marketing support arm Fiver Media (formerly Riptown Media) announced cuts to operations locally and gave 174 employees three months working notice in August.
Luckily the Vancouver Sun's David Baines has been on Ayre like a dog on a bone and dropped by Fiver's offices to poke around:
It's also difficult to determine what's happening at Fiver Media. On Tuesday, I dropped into its office at 333 Seymour St., but nobody would talk to me. Fiver Media is run by Jim Phillips, a Vancouver chartered accountant and former senior partner with the Vancouver accounting firm Morgan & Company. Although he was in his office when I dropped by, he did not show his face.
It sounds like they weren't interested in talking to Baines because they're all busy collecting a paycheque while working on their resumes and job hunting.
In an oddly considerate gesture, Fiver Media hosted an 'Open House' for local tech companies to network with employees and present current opportunities. Smart move by Fiver management as any poached staff will only shorten the working notice payouts they're on the hook for. According to an insider, Blast Radius, AirG, Action Pants, Relic, Kodak, and Telligence all dropped in to shop for staff.
So, where does Calvin Ayre fit in this continuing saga?? Ayre transferred licensing/ownership of Bodog's North America Operations to Morris Mohawk Gaming in 2007 in hopes of buffering himself from US Department of Justice laws. Ayre claims to have since 'retired' and remains in exile in Costa Rica.
Fiver Media is a full-service Product Development and Marketing services provider to world-renowned clients with big ambitions. With offices in... [more]
Quote: "... and gave 174 employees three months working notice in August"
We wish!
About 80% of the Toronto workforce were let go with the standard "two weeks pay in leu of notice" and termination packages. The rest were not given a notice but it was implied.
Quote:"...Ayre claims to have since "retired" and remains in exile in Costa Rica"
We wish too!
Because we have several questions to ask about those families which work for them. Charity foundation? He should look inside first... Does he forgot where he came from and what he was before everything..? Probably. Now he just look as those very poor people that get rich and forget where they came from and think that will last forever...
All this is very simple. Napoleon said: "warriors wins the battles and generals used to get the credit". Ayre is what he is due to his team, the most of them fired by now.
In God we trust, because the rest are only humans.
Yep! I was laid off in February 2008 and was given 2 weeks pay. I don't get why the company went through so many renames, Bodog, Riptown, Riptown Media, Fiver Media... last I heard was they opened up an office in Montreal by some other name!
