since MA has not updated anybody about there situation, i think the right thing is to do is let people know. Here is the email i got about 10 days or so ago.
"Here's where we stand. We've had to make some fairly painful changes to attain profitability with the company. We've had to change our payment terms to Net 65. Additionally Publishers will receive 60% of revenue from Network Campaigns rather than the previous 70%. That said, any Publishers who were actively participating in Network Campaigns at the time of this switch have been "grandfathered" in at the old rate of seventy percent. While these changes are painful they are the only way we can achieve profitability and only with profitability can we continue to operate and pay Publishers on time. Additionally we'll shortly be implementing that Publishers must allocate a minimum of 50% of their inventory to Network Campaigns. Basically no longer offering the functionality to be a totally free Ad Rotation Solution.
Less to do with direct effects to Publishers but certainly the biggest step toward achieving profitability, I've cut $20,000 a month from our monthly budget by letting go of a good portion of our staff and trimming it to just the core programmers and support personnel necessary to maintain MadAve and having them now work from home. Fortunately this won't be bad as we've finished up 95% of the work needed to be done on MadAve. I'm announcing today the new Mobile functionality is completed where all banner zones will automatically detect mobile surfers and display mobile specific campaigns. All that's left on the to-do list is to automate the allocation of Network Campaigns (currently only Filler Ads are automatically allocated). MadAve is basically "done" in terms of major development needs. Of course we'll still be adding in minor functionality but our core concentration moving forward is making money with the platform as it stands.
The bottom line is that after I've completed paying severance for the employees we let go we'll now be marginally profitable. I've already found someone to take over the lease on our office, buy all the excess equipment, etc.. Once we fully implement the changes to the %'s of commissions the Publishers get we'll be comfortably profitable. Heh, not saying we'll be making crazy profits but enough that we'll no longer have problems paying Publishers on time.
I haven't made a general announcement on this yet as I've been scrambling to come up with enough funds to make payment for what was expected by Publishers on the 5th of this month to make these changes less of a financial burden on the Publishers. It's a difficult balancing act that frankly I don't know how it will play out. If too many Publishers leave because of these changes then we won't be able to stay in business and bankruptcy will be our only option and sadly no one will get paid anything.
Thus, it's vital that if at all possible you stay with us so that we can keep operating, keep running the platform, and keep generating new revenue to pay Publishers with. While these changes do mean less money initially I'm confident that you and all other Publishers would prefer this to us having to declare bankruptcy. Stick with us and we'll be able to pay on time every time since we won't be focusing nearly as much time on development of the platform we can and will concentrate much more effort on bringing in more advertisers, more campaigns, and that as always will result in better RPM for you. I'm confident in a couple months with the addition of all these new advertisers and the Mobile offering we'll be making you just as much per month as you have been in the past. The only difference will be that you're getting paid on time and the company as a whole will be more stable and secure!"
Regards,
Marc Womack
Chief Executive Officer
www.MadisonAvenue.com