Venture Capital on Ulitzer

There’s a deathwatch being kept at the bedside of the skeletal remains of Verari Systems, some paid, some not.

Unable to meet payroll, the blade-cum-storage and container boutique has fired almost all of its reportedly ~225-strong staff including co-founder and CTO David Driggers – 125 of them can currently be found at a VerariAlumni.com networking site that one of them set up – and the remaining management has posted a “State of the Business” message on the company’s homepage saying it’s restructuring.

It reads, “Verari has initiated a process that will protect our customers’ investment and benefit our creditors as we restructure the business. The intention is to safeguard customers’ investment and provide an ongoing support capability. There are several options that are being considered to provide solutions to our customers. We expect to have the new plan in place soon.”

What that might be is anybody’s guess. They’ve reportedly been trying to flog the place off for some time. And there’s a report from the blogosphere that five companies will bid on the assets by January 15

Verari CEO David Wright blames the credit crunch. The remaining crew is reportedly trying to fill existing orders, supposedly worth millions of dollars.

Verari customers include Virgin America, Morgan Stanley, Akamai, Microsoft, Qualcomm, EMC, Petrobras, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.

The company has raised something like $80 million over the years from such as the chi-chi Carlyle Venture Partners, Celerity Partner, Voyager Capital and Sierra Ventures.

More info here.

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