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SAN Startups on the Block: Page 2 of 4

Whether this is enough to satisfy any interested suitors remains to be seen. But it's worth noting that Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) is one of SAN Valley's key resellers and has yet to come clean on its IP storage strategy. In addition, it can't hurt that Bob Coackley, president and CEO of SAN Valley, was formerly a senior executive at HP (see HP Takes iSCSI Baby Step).

Still, SAN Valley appears to be running out of gas. It has received a total of about $40 million in funding since April 1999 from Moore Capital Management Inc., Upstart Capital, Vertex Management Inc., Innovacom Venture Capital, Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A), and Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO).

Next up on the list of struggling startups is storage management software maker TrueSAN Networks. The startup allegedly turned down an offer of $5 million from CNT (Nasdaq: CMNT) for its intellectual property, according to a company insider (see TrueSAN Dishes Up Pink Slips).

San Jose, Calif.-based TrueSAN has raised a little over $30 million in two rounds, the second of which it closed in January 2001. Investors in the company include 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).

"It looks like they are positioning to sell the intellectual property," our insider says. It wouldn't be the first time TrueSAN has tried to sell off its technology. The startup first entered the storage market with a SAN-in-a-can storage array and switch combo -- the Palladin -- but when this failed to sell, TrueSAN's president and CEO Tom Isakovich dumped the technology and switched to selling storage management software instead (see TrueSAN Takes Second Shot).