No. 8: Tacit Networks Inc.
Tacit staffers barely had time to celebrate cracking the Byte and Switch Top Ten Private Companies list when news came that Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) is eyeing the NAS market with technology acquired from Tacit rival Actona Technologies Inc. (see Cisco NAS Options Mulled.) Tacit has similar intentions with its wide-area file service (WAFS) software. Now it must compete for partnerships with NAS vendors against Cisco, an exercise Tacit president Chuck Foley labels as sparring with a gorilla.
No. 7: BlueArc Corp.
The NAS vendor didnt have a bad year in 2004, but it hasnt met expectations for a private company with $157 million in funding and four years of revenue. Last spring, BlueArc execs talked about going public by the first quarter of 2005. But the company still wasnt profitable by the third quarter of 2004. Now that BlueArc president Mike Gustafson has six months on the job, we should expect some positive movement towards profitability and an IPO (see Gustafson Leads Exec Carousel).
No. 6: Engenio Information Technologies Inc.
This year didnt go as planned for Engenio, formerly LSI Logic Corp. (NYSE: LSI) Storage. LSI hoped to spin Engenio off for an IPO in July but pushed back plans because of unfavorable market conditions (see Engenio Gets Cold Feet). Then LSI and Engenio had a rocky third quarter (see LSI Stands By Storage). Engenio can still make it public in 2005, but it must register at least one strong financial quarter and squash doubts about its long-term relationship with primary OEM partner IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM). (See IBM Still Loves Engenio.)
No. 5: Advanced Digital Information Corp. (Nasdaq: ADIC)
Times are tough for tape library vendors, and ADIC struggled last quarter despite a reseller deal with EMC (see ADIC Sales Down Despite EMC and EMC to Resell ADIC Tape). Guidance for this quarter was also tepid. Now it appears ADICs future rests on the success it has with its PathLight VX disk backup system (see ADIC Upgrades Disk Backup).
No. 4:
BakBone Software Inc. (Toronto: BKB)
The backup software company will spend 2005 trying to rebound from a series of embarrassing accounting problems. The most recent was a Dec. 23 announcement that it must restate previously audited financial statements because it may have improperly recognized $500,000 in revenues. That news caps a year in which BakBone announced it would restate earnings for 2002 and 2003, abruptly changed auditors and CEOs, and missed the deadline for filing its September earnings report (see BakBone Slapped in Toronto, Bakbone Reports Restated, and BakBone Gets New Head). The problems could prevent BakBone from taking advantage of the transition period Veritas faces after the Symantec merger.
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