Have we learned all we can from Video Professor’s free training discs? (Well, free for 7 days, then $30 every month.) Or did the professor blow all his cash on legal fees in order to bully critics and attack competitors, as techdirt suggests? Either way, the company called all its employees to a meeting last week and gave them an unpaid summer vacation.

According to 9News in Denver, “Video Professor’s approximately 50 employees were called to a meeting Monday [April 26th] and told they were being placed on unpaid furlough.” A spokesperson told 9News, “The company is going through a reorganization.”

Recent Video Professor failures that are unrelated to whatever problems may exist with the company’s actual business model:

• 2010 – Losing a keyword lawsuit against Amazon over the phrase “video professor” (apparently the company forgot that it agreed to a “perpetual trademark license” back when it was an Amazon vendor);
• 2009 – Drawing attention to a well-known blog’s description of the company as a “scam”;
• 2007 – Earning an online reputation as a bully for trying to use subpoenas to uncover the identities of anonymous critics on infomercialratings.com.

It sucks not having a paying job, so I am extending this special offer to all Video Professor employees: contact me for a 100% FREE* CD-Rom that will train you in new skills, starting with “Learn to Blog.” After that, learn new skills every month with titles like “Learn Facebook Privacy Settings” and “Learn Google Fast Flip.”

*Start learning today with a 2-Day Free Trial (plus a $6.95 shipping fee). After that, you will be billed $29.95 per month. If you wish to cancel at any time, contact me for a free (plus $6.95 shipping) CD-Rom that explains how to cancel.

“Video Professor puts employees on furlough, claims ‘reorganization'” [9News Denver]
“Did Video Professor Spend Too Much On Lawyers And Not Enough On Its Product?” [techdirt]

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