TrueSAN Officially Kicks Bucket

TrueSAN Networks Inc. has finally lost the last of its nine lives.

On June 16, the company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Northern District of California in San Jose. Unlike a Chapter 11 filing, which allows a company to reorganize its finances and continue business operations, Chapter 7 bankruptcy results in a complete liquidation of an entity's assets.

The company, founded in November 1997, had received around $30 million from investors that included Woodside Fund, Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., QLogic Corp. (Nasdaq: QLGC), JT Venture Partners, Credit Suisse First Boston Corp., Spring Creek Partners, and Finisar Corp. (Nasdaq: FNSR) (see TrueSAN Secures $30M in Funding).

TrueSAN was originally a hardware play, with a "SAN-in-a-can" storage system built largely out of third-party components that the company was positioning against -- refrain from laughing until the end, please -- EMC Corp.'s (NYSE: EMC) Symmetrix and its ilk. A year and a half ago, it ditched that idea and shifted to SAN management software (see TrueSAN Takes Second Shot).

After a series of layoffs last year, TrueSAN finally succumbed and shut its doors in March 2003 (or so we thought!), with founder and CEO Tom Isakovich penning a sentimental farewell memo to employees. Isakovich's departure followed a failed bid to sell the company's assets to CNT (Nasdaq: CMNT) (see TrueSAN Goes Belly-Up, TrueSAN Dishes Up Pink Slips, and TrueSAN Swings Axe).Then, like one of the evil undead, TrueSAN was briefly resurrected. The company's VCs hired Mark Hoover, president of consulting firm Acuitive Inc., as interim CEO. Obviously, however, Hoover & Co. were unable to salvage whatever was left of TrueSAN (see Source: CNT Nixed TrueSAN Bid).

In its Chapter 7 filing, TrueSAN includes on its list of creditors Acuitive, Brocade Communications Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: BRCD), Finisar, Gartner Inc., IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM), LSI Logic Corp. (NYSE: LSI), Network Appliance Inc. (Nasdaq: NTAP), TechTarget.com, and a number of individuals -- including Isakovich.

TrueSAN listed liabilities of $5.56 million in its filing, according to Al Flor, an attorney with Wendel, Rosen, Black & Dean LLP, a law firm in Oakland, Calif., that is representing the company.

But there may be yet another postscript to this story: The domain name truesan.com is once again registered in Isakovich's name. No word, yet, on when TrueSAN V: The Revenge, could be making its premiere.

Todd Spangler, US Editor, Byte and Switch