Digeo lays off staff, kills off two upcoming video recorders

If you were one of the handful of people eagerly awaiting Digeo's upcoming Moxi Multi-Room HD digital media recorder or Digital Home Cinema then I've got some bad news. Both products have apparently been canceled.

Digeo is laying off about half of its staff as a result, and CEO Mike Fidler is out. Chief Operating Officer Greg Gudorf will take over. Fidler told CNet the announcement follows Digeo's "inability to deliver some products on time." In fact, we first spoke with Fidler about Digeo's plans to introduce its first standalone box (which you wouldn't have to purchase through a cable provider) well over a year ago when he told us that the box would be released in 2007.

While I've never been clear on who the target market for these Moxi boxes would be, I'm still a little shocked at the news. The multi-room DMR was already in the hands of beta testers, which would indicate to me that the company was working out the kinks and getting ready to ship units fairly soon. But perhaps the company decided that the set top box which had the TiVo Series3 in its sites a year ago would be less attractive to consumers now that the TiVo HD is available and the Series3 has seen a few price drops.

Digeo still plans to release the Moxi HD DVR for Cable later this year.