Quibi Is Officially Dead
Written by laserteam on December 1, 2020
As previously announced, the Quibi app as of Tuesday (Dec. 1) is no longer operable — marking the quick and quiet end of Jeffrey Katzenberg’s ill-fated $1.75 billion quest to carve out a new corner of the subscription streaming-video market.
The Quibi app will remain on users’ devices until they delete it. However, the app no longer allows users to sign in (returning an error message if they try to) or access any Quibi content.
In October, Quibi announced that its board had decided to shut down the company, less than seven months after its April 6 debut. The startup, led by Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman, had promised subscribers a daily dose of “quick bite” originals, chopped into episodes of 10 minutes or less, featuring recognizable Hollywood talent.
Now that its streaming service has passed into the dustbin of history, Quibi is engaged in the final stages of winding down the business. (As part of that, Quibi has wiped clean its social accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.) The company reportedly told investors including Disney, NBCUniversal, WarnerMedia and ViacomCBS that it would return $350 million of its cash on hand to them, after raising about $1.75 billion. Quibi also has tapped LionTree to try to sell off its assets.
