Entrada's Last Gasp?

Entrada Networks (Nasdaq: ESAN) has failed in its efforts to stage a comeback.

The company announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary, Torrey Pines Networks, has stopped development of its Silverline storage area network transport product and has laid off everyone (roughly 40 employees) that had been assigned to develop it (see Entrada Pulls Back, Changes Chairs).

In a prepared statement, company officials said that considering Entrada's current stock price ($0.18 a share at 2pm ET today) and the tight money supply, continuation of this R&D effort, launched in the middle of last year, would have meant a very substantial dilution of shareholder value.”

To try and save whatever it has left, Entrada also announced that it is consolidating its facilities and will relocate all operations to its Irvine, Calif., Sync Research subsidiary, by the end of the year.

Entrada's troubles have been ongoing and came to a head this summer, when management announced the breakup of the company after a particularly poor earnings report (see Disaster for Entrada? ). The company hoped Torrey Pines -- coincidentally named after an endangered tree in California -- would be able to raise additional financing more easily if it was split off from Entrada's other businesses. But the poor economic climate and the number of startups already funded in this sector made that problematic. Extra funding has clearly not been raised (see Entrada Faces Its Demons).So what does Entrada have left?

Despite repeated calls and promises to "get back" to us, the company refused to shed any light on its remaining businesses, which look bleak. Indeed, it appears that Entrada doesn’t have much time. This summer, during an interview with Byte and Switch, Michael Harris, senior VP of marketing at Entrada, referred to both Entrada's frame relay and services business (Sync Research) and its adapter card company (Rixon Networks) as “legacy businesses.” Sync Research is classified in company SEC filings as a “discontinued operation.”

Now that Torrey Pines has turned up dead shoots, the whole tree remains endangered.

— Jo Maitland, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch http://www.byteandswitch.com