Category: Archiving

Last fall Plasmon and its UDO technology and G-Series optical libraries appeared all but left for dead. Years of mismanagement had left Plasmon in dire financial straits and when a refinancing deal in the fall of 2008 for $20 million led by Plasmon’s-then CEO Stephen Murphy fell apart in the midst of the worldwide credit crunch, Plasmon’s end was imminent. It was only after Plasmon went into receivership in early 2009 that Alliance Storage Technologies, led by its CEO and President Chris Carr (himself a former Plasmon engineer), entered the scene and breathed new life into this dead and dying company.

The first thing that many were interested in finding out as they arrived was how many people (users and vendors) were actually in attendence. Bottom line, SNW day 1 (Monday, April 6) was pretty quiet and seemed pretty sparsely attended. The normal high profile vendor displays and grandiose announcements that often accompany SNW were noticeably absent though I received mixed reports on whether or not user attendance was up or down.

Earlier this week, Plasmon updated its website to let its current clients know that they are scaling back operations. The exact text of Plasmon’s announcement is below but my sources tell me that a major investor pulled out of Plasmon at the last minute leaving them with minimal capital to run operations. At this point, everyone at Plasmon is looking for work, Plasmon is looking for a buyer and Plasmon customers are trying to figure out what to do with UDO media that has a 50 year shelf life but a support life that is seriously in doubt.