Cyanogen Inc, the company behind the Cyanogen OS, has confirmed that it has let go roughly 20-percent of its workforce. Most of the staff let go were from the open source side of the business, i.e. the people who worked on CyanogenMod itself.
Reports indicate that employees who were not losing their jobs were asked to stay home last Friday, with those facing the axe mysteriously scheduled for meetings with Human Resources. AndroidPolice notes that the positions cut included many overseas positions in Lisbon and India.
Sources close to the matter say that the higher ups at Cyanogen Inc are looking to “pivot” development towards apps. Nobody is entirely sure what this means, but it is likely that this is the end for CyanogenMod and Cyanogen OS.
Cyanogen had originally promised to “take Android away from Google” by providing an alternative source for the open source operating system. While it was a good boast for attractive investors, the company has had some trouble getting smartphone manufacturers to get onboard.
Thus far, it has only seen a consistent partnership with Micromax in India. An earlier partnership with OnePlus quickly fell apart shortly after the OnePlus One was released.
At this rate, it looks like Cyanogen is getting out of operating systems altogether. Where it ends up is currently a mystery, considering that the company has removed a large number of developers and support staff.
[Source: AndroidPolice, Recode]
