Responding to the economic pressure effecting all sectors of the entertainment and media biz right now, 4Kids Entertainment is laying off 15% of its staff across all subsidiaries and divisions.

A 4Kids spokesperson has confirmed that cuts were made across the board in entertainment licensing, ad sales, production, as well as its subsidiary TC Digital unit, which is the first time such action has been taken in the company’s history. However, the company did not identify which individuals have been let go.

In turn, 4Kids will incur severance costs of approximately US$375,000 in Q4 2008, with additional steps to be taken following its operations review; it will be looking to reduce operating expenses by another US$4 million to US$5 million in 2009. These savings will add to those gained by the previous termination of the 4Kids/Fox Broadcasting Company Agreement, which goes into effect at the end of this month and is expected to yield pretax savings between US$15million and US$18 million in 2009.

The company’s Q3 net revenues were up US$17.8 million from US$12.2 million for the same period last year, with revenue including approximately US$7.3 million in product sales based on multiplatform property Chaotic.