Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Ezenia files for Ch. 11 bankruptcy

By Rodney H. Brown

Ezenia Inc., true to its word, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the company announced this morning.

Nashua, N.H.-based maker of secure collaboration and information sharing software tools said as much when it filed to pull its stock off the Over the Counter Bulletin Board just last week. According to today’s announcement, Ezenia is in talks with “several parties about a debtor-in-possession financing facility and plans to have a facility in place shortly.” The bankruptcy court has given Ezenia the OK to operate as usual while the proceedings go forward.

Larry Snyder, CEO of Ezenia, said in the release that the company had “taken steps” in recent months to reduce costs and enhance efficiency. Among those, in March, was the reduction of its staff size almost in half, reducing headcount from 25 to 13.

Founded in 1991, Ezenia has been trading publicly since May 1995. Government and defense clients have traditionally made up a large chunk of Ezenia’s business. In February of 2008, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency renewed its license subscription for Ezenia’s InfoWorkSpace product, which it had been using for nine years. Later that year, Ezenia brought on board former Tyco International Ltd. executive Kevin Hackett.