Pleo and Ugobe Struggle to Survive
Posted in: robot, Robots, Robots Robotics, Smart Devices, Tech Toys, Today's Chili
Pleo, the adorable robotic dinosaur from Ugobe and the mind of Caleb Chung, is struggling to avoid Jurassic-like extinction.
As we noted late last year, Ugobe’s CEO Bob Christopher stepped down and the company moved its operation to Idaho (Pleo was on my “Maybe Buy” list for these and other reasons). Now Wired’s Gadget Lab reports that the company’s situation may have gone from bad to worse. Liz Gasper, who took over for Christopher and spent most of her time cutting costs, left the company in January.
Meanwhile, fund-raising efforts stalled and the entire Ugobe board resigned. Co-founder Caleb Chung is now back in charge, but he didn’t speak to Wired. Company President and COO Dough Swanson painted a rosy picture for Gadget Lab, telling the blog that, while the company has just 20 employees left, it still plans on delivering a Pleo update sometime in 2009. It’s unclear if that’s another one of the company’s semi-frequent Pleo software updates or new hardware.
Post a Comment