With the sale and break up of Diamond Comics and its associated companies official this afternoon…..the layoffs have begun. Layoffs following an acquisition are an unfortunate and almost inevitable part of the business, so many observers expected something along these lines.
We’re hearing it described as variously “a bloodbath” and “massive layoffs.”
Chris Powell, Diamond’s Chief Sales & Service Officer, and one of the most public facing personnel there, responsible for many statements during these last few difficult months, made it official on his FB page that he was leaving.
To my comic and game peeps:
Today appears to have been my last day at Diamond and the other Geppi Family Enterprises companies.
The last 13 years have rarely been easy, but I’m just as grateful for my time here as I was for the prior 23 years at Lone Star Comics. The last 5 have been particularly challenging, with COVID and other factors, but the great people I worked with (my team, other internal teams, and SO many great suppliers and customers) got us through it all. Well, I guess not “all”. Ha!
I don’t know what’s next, whether it will be in the industry where I have spent my adult life or elsewhere. I know that whatever it is, it will have a lot to live up to.
I still have things like theComic Book Legal Defense Fund that I’m passionate about so I will be around, maybe with more free time to bug you for donations…
I hoped not to end up here, but here we are. Drop me a line if you need something or are going to be in town.
Love you lots.
Powell is not the only person let go from Diamond Comics proper, but we’re not reporting any names until it is made official. And to be clear, not everyone has been let go.
We’re hearing that most of Diamond Book Distributors personnel has been laid off, with only three people remaining.
We’re also hearing lots and lots of theories about what Universal and Ad Populum will do with their various acquisitions: Universal has acquired the assets of Alliance Game Distributors, and Ad Populum has acquired the assets of Diamond Comic Distributors, Diamond Book Distributors, Diamond Select Toys & Collectibles, Collectible Grading Authority, and other related assets. Diamond UK will go to Universal in a separate deal, most likely.
We’re mostly hearing that it’s unlikely that Ad Populum will have any interest in a marginal business like comics distribution. Basically, Diamond Comics is done.
However Universal already has plans in place, and deals with major publishers, to become the third comics direct market distributor in the US. We’re hearing that they have already made offers to hire some key Diamond personnel.
One thing that we’ve been told several times in recent days is that Universal is owned by The Jim Pattinson Group. You can see the corporate page here. Under founder Jim Pattison, the JPG is “Canada’s second largest privately held company, has more than 45,000 employees worldwide, and annual sales of $10.1 billion based on investments in Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Europe, Asia and Australia,” according to Wikipedia.
So far from being a small scrappy company, Universal is actually very well funded with deep corporate pockets. And a lot of comics publishers find that something to be optimistic about.
To sum it all up, we’re hearing several different versions of the main idea: Universal will basically be a “new Diamond” but using the Alliance infrastructure and their own deals.
But Diamond Comics as we knew it is done.
Once again, our best wishes to all those impacted by today’s layoffs; there were many good people there (and still some remaining) and they’re what earned Diamond the respect it held.
