Skip to main content

Chumby no more: employees at Technicolor, technology waiting to be sold

Chumby no more: employees at Technicolor, technology waiting to be sold

/

We just confirmed with former Chumby CEO Derrick Oien that Chumby as a company is no more.

Share this story

Chumby 8
Chumby 8

The Chumby widget platform has gone through a number of permutations over the years, but it appears the ride is over for now: we just confirmed with former CEO Derrick Oien that Chumby as a company is no more. Derrick says Chumby was working hard to transition its platform onto a smart TV platform over the past few years and had even struck deals with LG and Best Buy, but investors grew weary and started looking to sell last fall. A suitor for the core Chumby assets still hasn't been found, but Technicolor now employs most of Chumby's people on its own smart TV project. Oien said that no one's left at the company, and that "Chumby's address is now Technicolor."

"If someone wanted to pick up where Chumby left off, they could buy the assets tomorrow."

As for the core Chumby widget technology, patents, and network, they're still in the hands of a corporate trustee waiting to be sold — the network is scheduled to keep running into the summer and partners like Best Buy and LG are still serving content, but it's not clear what will happen after that. Oien said that there's some interest in a peer-to-peer solution, but that ultimately it's up to the trustee to decide what happens. "If someone wanted to pick up where Chumby left off, they could buy the assets tomorrow," said Oien. "You'd have a pretty good size installed base, some branding, some legacy, some history, and patents." Oien couldn't say how much that would cost, but he didn't laugh too hard at the idea of a Kickstarter campaign. "From a community perspective, there's a chance some people out there could resuscitate things in a different way." We'll see if anyone takes that chance.