Six-year-old social media company Digital Royalty closing

Digital Royalty, a 6-year-old social media company based in the downtown Las Vegas John E. Carson hotel building and a consultant for Bill Foley’s NHL team initiative in Las Vegas, is closing, the owner of the company said in a blog post.

Owner Amy Jo Martin, who counted Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh as an investor, revealed the company’s closure in the June 24 post.

“Today I’m announcing that after six solid years, Digital Royalty will be winding down in the near future as a result of some recent sizable shifts that affected our company. Some of these shifts were in our control and some were not,” Martin wrote.

In the post, Martin said investors will receive their money and workers at the 30-employee company will receive severance packages. Martin had 20 employees in Las Vegas and others in London, the United Arab Emirates, Germany and Phoenix.

Martin moved Digital Royalty to Las Vegas from Phoenix in June 2012, when Hsieh became an investor. Martin and Hsieh met on Twitter, with the Downtown Project founder serving as friend and mentor. Hsieh said in an email that Digital Royalty lost a big client.

“From what I know, Digital Royalty has been continuously profitable and growing, but recently a sizable client relationship ended which forced them to make some decisions,” Hsieh said.

“I’m proud of what they’ve been able to accomplish and because they were profitable, I’m happy with the financial return generated for investors,” he said. “I’m also grateful that they’ve been supportive participants to the downtown Vegas community.”

Martin wrote in her post that she will try to “wind down our operation as smoothly as possible for our partners. Some people from the team will be starting their own consultancies, others will be seeking ways to continue positively disrupting and impacting the world.”

Her post, however, does not mention the projected last day or specific reasons for closing except for saying: “We are proud that the international company, with a footprint in nine countries, has been consistently profitable; however, the upcoming strategic shift in the next quarter made us take a hard look at ourselves and ask ourselves what would make the most sense for shareholders and employees moving forward.”

The Review-Journal reached Martin by text message Tuesday, when she acknowledged that a loss of contracts was a factor but she noted, “There’s more to it than that.”