San Mateo, Calif. - Akimbo, a maker of broadband set-top boxes that delivered video to televisions, and recently received $4 million in new funding to take the company in a new direction, has terminated most staff and is shutting down, VentureBeat reported. Demo.com adds that the company was unable to raise another $4 million from outside investors, and so laid off 14 employees while it hunts for a buyer.

San Mateo, Calif. - Akimbo on Wednesday announced that it will shift its focus away from its video-on-demand set-top box business, and instead offer a service that lets content providers publish Web video on their own websites.

San Mateo- Akimbo Systems, developer of an Internet video-on-demand service, on Thursday named Thomas Frank as its president and CEO. Frank, previously the president of White Dog Media and COO of Real Networks, replaces Joshua Goldman, who will remain on the company's board.
http://www.akimbo.com

San Antonio, Texas - AT&T said on Tuesday that it has added a feature to its Homezone service -- which bundles satellite TV, broadband Internet and home networking services -- that allows customers to manage their television recordings using their mobile phones. The company also said that it has added thousands of video-on-demand titles from Akimbo to the service, joining existing providers including Yahoo and Movielink.

San Mateo, Calif. - Independent TV production company Reveille ("The Office," "Ugly Betty") announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with Akimbo to make its series available for download and viewing through the Akimbo IPTV video-on-demand service. The Akimbo service offers 14,000 movie and TV titles delivered through a $99, Internet-connected TV set-top box.