The End of Angie's List?

Readers of this blog may recall IR's article from November in which we reported about upcoming layoffs at Angie's List. Since then Angie's List has agreed to be sold to their competitor Home Advisor. The agreed upon sale has done nothing to stem the tide of layoffs at the cesspool that is Angie's List.

The Star reported yesterday on the most recent layoffs at Angie's List. Everyone's favorite Langley Propaganda Rag said:

Angie's List Inc. is reducing its sales staff as the company struggles to generate revenue under its new business model. The company on Thursday laid off about 70 members of its sales staff as part of "right-sizing" efforts, said Leslie Arena, the company's vice president of investor relations. All of the employees were based in Indianapolis.

The affected workers were members of the sales staff who worked with Angie's List's service providers.

The move comes almost one month after Angie's List agreed to be acquired by HomeAdvisor parent company IAC in a deal worth more than $500 million. The layoffs are not related to that deal, Arena said.

Angie's List had 1,567 employees as of a Jan. 31 Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Arena declined to update that number or specify how many people work in sales.

Angie's List has dramatically changed its business model during the past year. The company in July began offering free memberships, which increased its number of users, but caused its base of paying customers to plunge.

The company's year-over-year revenue declined by more than $10 million in the first quarter as paying subscribers became free members. Angie's List generated $73.1 million in the three months ending March 31, down from $83.9 million a year earlier.

Yet, during the same period, memberships grew at a rate 357 percent faster than the previous year. Angie's List during the first quarter added 860,000 members for a total of 5.7 million.

Arena described Thursday's layoffs as part of Angie's List's ongoing transformation.

"In general, we're always focused on efficiencies," she said. "What we had done, more than sales reductions, is some structural changes within the organization, so we're focused on optimizing both the acquisition of service providers and retention of service providers. This is more of a right-sizing."

One is tempted to ask Ms. Arena is how much more "right-sizing" is Angie's List going to need until it actually turns a damn profit? It seems as if about the only thing that Angie's List does these days is lay people off. Apparently getting taxpayer handouts from the Indianapolis City County Council just isn't doing the trick. As far as saying Angie's List is always focused on efficiencies. Does anyone outside of Bill Oesterle's group of sycophants believe this nonsense? This is almost exactly what the company said back in November of 2016. 

The company has almost never turned a profit since it's founding in 1995. So obviously there focus has clearly not been on having a sound business model. We aren't putting up with this nonsense anymore! Angie's List has been the target of shareholder lawsuits. And as the late great Gary Welsh and Paul Ogden have reported Angie's List would have died long ago without taxpayer dollars! Angie's List is simply put a vampire that has run out of victims to drain blood out of. May this nefarious enterprise be put out of it's misery soon!