Network Computing is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

2006: Storage Business Highlights: Page 3 of 6

Most Exasperating: Incipient's $24 million. (See Incipient Still Incipient.) Now, after five years and $79 million in funding, this startup has released a product that only works with Cisco switches. (See A Baby Step for Storage Virtualization.) We agree with the firm's first announced customer: "That it's taken us this long to get virtualization in the fabric absolutely makes me nuts," says Jeff Boles, IT manager for the city of Mesa, Arizona.

Silliest: CentrePath's $10 million. (See Another Round for CentrePath.) You have to ask why VCs sunk money in April into a firm that was sold for parts in December. On top of all that, CentrePath had already morphed from an earlier, $160 million, failure called GiantLoop. Lessons learned!

Regulatory/Legal Snafus

Biggest Ongoing Case: Former Brocade CEO Greg Reyes has pleaded not guilty to fraud charges in relation to backdating stock options, but no trial date has been set. (See Brocade: We're Clean, Reyes Charged With Fraud, and Feds Made Mistake.) His old company isn’t completely out of the woods yet either. While Brocade has set aside money to pay the SEC, it has not yet reached a settlement. (See Brocade Eyes SEC Settlement.)

Biggest Settled Case: Hewlett-Packard paid $14.5 million as part of a settlement with the California attorney general’s office in December. (See HP Reaches Resolution.) The payment is to resolve civil claims resulting from HP’s spying practices to find the source of news leaks from its directors. While the payment closes the books with the state, the stench of the scandal and stain on CEO Mark Hurd’s reputation will remain for a long time. (See Hurd Apologizes, Probe 'Disturbing'.)