Friday, July 18, 2008

Adesso closes, sells IP; Landry eyes next move

By Christopher Calnan

Adesso Systems Inc., a Boston-based company founded in 2000 by prominent local technology executive John Landry, has quietly closed its doors and sold its synchronization software to a former customer.

Landry, the founder of 10 tech companies and an MHT High Tech All Star in 2006, says he has moved on to other projects.

“It’s old news and I’ve got plenty of other fish frying,” Landry wrote in an e-mail message this week.

Landry manages a Wayland-based investment firm called Lead Dog Ventures LLC, which made an initial investment in Adesso, according to Landry’s curriculum vitae and website. However, the investment amount is not disclosed.

Terraine Inc., a Tennessee-based technology and environmental consulting company, acquired Adesso’s intellectual property for an undisclosed amount in May, Terraine business development manager Rick Beckley said.

Adesso, which employed 20 workers in 2006, had collected $8 million in venture capital from the Washington, D.C.-based Carlyle Group in 2004. Carlyle Group investors declined to comment.

Adesso’s technology enables Terraine customers to synchronize digital files stored in multiple locations, Beckley said. Terraine will use the platform for its commercial and governmental customers, for whom the company converts paper forms to digital files.

Most recently, Adesso had been promoting Tubes, a consumer version of its file-synchronization software. But Terraine chose not to acquire Tubes.

Adesso’s former vice president of marketing, Steve Chazin, said Adesso burned through its cash before it could generate consumer interest in Tubes. Chazin is now the chief marketing officer of Burlington-based Dimdim Inc.

In 2006, Adesso enlisted John Van Siclen as CEO, replacing Landry, who had been Adesso’s interim CEO for about six months and subsequently remained the company’s chairman and chief technology officer. Van Siclen had been an executive at California-based Interwoven Inc. from 1999 to 2003. Before that, he was CEO of San Francisco-based Internet software maker Perspecta Inc.

Prior to founding Adesso, Landry was vice president of technology strategy for IBM Corp. after IBM acquired Cambridge-based Lotus Development Corp., where Landry was senior vice president for development and CTO.
In 2002, he founded Boston’s Adjoin Solutions Inc., which was later acquired by Computer Associates Inc.

Lead Dog portfolio companies include Woburn-based LogMeIn Inc. and Southborough-based Double-Take Software Inc. It also invested in Maven Networks Inc., a Cambridge-based video hosting and distribution company acquired in February by Yahoo Inc. for a reported $150 million to $160 million. Landry was also a Maven Networks board member.

Terraine officials learned about Adesso’s abrupt closing after the business was shuttered in December, Beckley said. The company, which was an Adesso reseller, then spent five months negotiating the acquisition of Adesso’s synchronization technology before closing the deal in May, he said.