Aereo shuts down Boston office, lays off 43 employees (update)

Update 12:30 p.m. PST – An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Aereo has officially shut down operations.

TV anywhere service Aereo is shutting down operations in Boston, following a series of court decisions deeming the service illegal.

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The Boston office closing also includes laying off over 40 employees, according to local news pub BetaBoston. The company said the decision to close the office was done as a cost cutting measure, reports GigaOm. What’s worse is that Aereo may not be done handing out pink slips, either. The company is also expected to lay off employees in its New York office.

Aereo initially debuted back in 2012 with a “TV anywhere” subscription service that used tiny individual antennas to stream freely available broadcast television channels to tablets, set-top boxes, smartphones, and other connected devices. It also allowed subscribers to record programming via a cloud-based DVR platform. The move quickly caught the attention of broadcast TV networks like Fox and CBS, who proceeded to sue Aereo for copyright infringement — a move that the Supreme Court agreed with, which led to Aereo shutting down service.

Aereo tried and failed to appeal the ruling. It was even shot down in its attempt to get federal courts to allow the service to relaunch as a traditional TV provider that paid licensing fees to carry channels.

We’ve embedded the document Aereo filed today with the state of Massachusetts below.