Scale8 Flatlines

Posted by byteandswitch.com on June 5, 2003

Tags: Other,  Storage Management

Channel: Other, Storage & Mgmt

Distributed NAS startup Scale8 Inc. has officially shut its doors after it failed to find a buyer for its intellectual property, Byte and Switch has learned.

Scale8 last month cut back its headcount and was trying to sell off its assets (see Scale8 Scales Down).

But it didn't find any takers. On Friday, May 30, the San Francisco company started to wind down its operations. "Josh [Coates, founder and CTO] says that he is dusting off computers and just closing the doors with a skeleton crew," says a source familiar with the company. [Ed. note: Dusting?]

Company executives did not respond to email messages. When we called Scale8's main phone number, someone who identified himself as Craig answered. After learning he was speaking with a Byte and Switch reporter, Craig snapped: "Didn't you already write that story? Well, you have sources -- call them." We must have caught "Craig" (if that's his real name) mid-dusting...

In all, Scale8 burned through a total of $55 million in funding, most recently with a $23 million third round in August 2001. Its investors included Oak Investment Partners, Star Ventures, InterWest Partners, CenterPoint Ventures, and Crown Advisors (see Scale Eight Scores $23M).