Quibi reportedly considering shutting down less than 7 months after launch

The ill-fated streaming service Quibi may already be shutting down.

Quibi Holdings LLC "is considering shutting itself down," The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The company has reportedly hired a restructuring firm, which presented the board with "a list of options that included shutting the company down," the Journal says.

Meanwhile, The Information is also reporting that Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg has "told people in the industry that he may have to shut down the company." That report adds that Quibi employees "have said important strategy meetings have been cancelled," and they've even "informally been scheduling goodbye drinks." And The Wrap reports that the "expectation is that the company will shut down and return what remains of its investors' money."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Quibi, which means "quick bites," launched in April with original shows presented in short chunks available to watch exclusively on mobile devices. But it hasn't exactly been a smooth launch year. Users complained about not being able to see Quibi's shows on their TVs — a feature that was later added — and while the service was geared toward those looking for content to watch on the go, there was less of a need for that weeks after potential subscribers stopped commuting to work due to the pandemic.

Previously, the Journal reported that Quibi was set to to "sign up fewer than two million paying subscribers" by the end of its first year, coming in "well under its original target of 7.4 million." News of the service's possible shutdown comes after Politico reported that should Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden win the 2020 election, among those whose names are "being floated" for his Cabinet include Quibi CEO Meg Whitman.

Update: After this article was published, the Journal reported that Katzenberg has informed investors Quibi will be shutting down.