OpenTV to Cut 47% of Jobs, Shut Offices to Reduce Costs

OpenTV Corp., a maker of software for interactive television, will fire 315 employees, or about 47% of its work force, and close eight offices.

The company said it will save about $60 million a year after the cuts and expects to complete the measures, at a cost of about $29 million before taxes, by the end of the first quarter.

OpenTV in August said it no longer expected revenue growth in the second half and planned to reduce expenses by more than $20 million a year.

Liberty Media Corp., the cable-TV company run by John Malone, bought control of OpenTV later that month, and the new board urged deeper cuts, Chief Executive James Ackerman said.

“We felt as a board that we needed to go very deep in this restructuring,” Ackerman said. “The market for digital interactive television is going to be slow for a while. We’re reducing the company to a size that’s in line with where revenues are today.”

OpenTV provides software that allows people to access the Internet from their television sets, play along with game shows or choose instant replays during sports broadcasts. The company earns royalty fees every time a set-top box containing its software is shipped, and shipments have slowed this year.

Shares rose 3 cents to $1.18 on Nasdaq.