In a note, Mendelsohn confirmed the news.
“After the election, the Hawkfish leadership team began to explore potential avenues for the company’s future and concluded that the Hawkfish would not continue in its current constitution,” he said. “The decision to end Hawkfish operations was not taken lightly or without considering other courses of action. The company expects to close in May, providing the team with a three-month lead to remain employed at Hawkfish’s will and continue to be eligible for wages and benefits while securing their next position. “
Hawkfish was the main vehicle for Bloomberg’s failed presidential candidacy, which never took off despite the hundreds of millions of dollars spent. After he gave up, Bloomberg invested $ 35 million in the company, an employee said, as she presented her work to Joe Biden’s campaign. But Biden’s campaign refused to use the Hawkfish, in part because of strong resistance from progressives and campaign advisers who did not want to outsource the work.
Still, Hawkfish took an active role in the general election, working for a trio of Democratic super PACs: Priorities USA, American Bridge and Unite the Country.
In the final months of the campaign, the company concentrated much of its efforts in Florida after Bloomberg promised to spend $ 100 million to turn the state blue. These efforts were also unsuccessful. Biden ended up losing Florida by 3 points.
In an internal note to employees, obtained by POLITICO, Mendelsohn praised the team for the “significant impact” that his work had on Biden’s victory.
“We anticipate, educate the media and mint the ‘Red Mirage’; we incorporated several of our colleagues into the Biden campaign and boosted voter analysis and registration in key battlefield states; we performed Biden’s campaign media purchases in the final stretch of the election; we target and activate digital ads for the historically successful virtual Democratic National Convention; and we serve dozens of progressive clients in 16 states, where we have successfully reached, registered and engaged hundreds of thousands of voters to help remove a dangerous president from the White House, ”he wrote.