Death Took a Holiday in '05

3:45 PM -- There are a lot fewer storage companies at the end of 2005 than there were at the beginning, but nearly all of the ones that went away had happy endings. Even troubled startups were able to find established storage companies willing to buy them out. Only a handful actually closed up shop and went out of business.

Maranti Networks was the biggest name in this category. (See Clock Ticks on Maranti.) The intelligent switch startup with $57 million in funding was already out of business before EMC paid a pittance for its intellectual property, but no products or employees. (See EMC to Buy Rainfinity.) I consider that a closing rather than an acquisition.

StoneFly Networks appears headed down that path, after Dynamic Network Factory (DNF) paid a whopping $205,000 for its assets this month. (See StoneFly Fights for Survival.) DNF CEO Mo Tahmasebi calls this an investment, but the letter StoneFly sent to shareholders said it was liquidating its assets. And then there was iStorageNetworks, which quietly sent its employees packing in July after an even quieter six-month lifespan in which it sold no products but did issue stock via the pink sheets. (See Pink Sheets to Pink Slips.)

It will be interesting to see if startups will be as successful -- or as lucky -- in 2006.

Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and SwitchOrganizations mentioned in this article: