Eleven years and $100 million later, InPhase Technologies announced that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
According to the statement, InPhase’s majority shareholder Signal Lake hopes to restructure the struggling and storied technology company by the end of the year and put it on a footing to finally deliver its long promised Tapestry holographic storage system. This latest move staves off an auction of physical assets, which was set to begin on Oct 18th.
In its court filing, InPhase estimates its current assets at somewhere between $50 to $100 million with liabilities of $10 to $50 million. Not surprisingly, InPhase’s largest unsecured creditors include various law firms as well as the company’s former President and CEO, Nelson Diaz.
InPhase Technologies Five Largest Unsecured Creditors
| Creditor | Amount |
| Morrison & Foerster LLP | $422,987.81 |
| Vedder Price PC | $357,352.00 |
| Nelson Diaz | $300,000.00 |
| Jagtiani & Guttag | $269,549.03 |
| Cypress Semiconductor | $237,121.00 |
In terms of its ownership, Signal Lake is listed as the only preferred stockholder with the lion’s share of common stock held by Hitachi Maxell and Bayer MaterialScience.
InPhase Technologies Common Stockholders
| Shareholder | Common Stock Holding |
| Hitachi Maxell | 31.5% |
| Bayer MaterialScience | 28.9% |
| Nanotech Partners | 10.7% |
| ALPS Information Technology Fund | 7.4% |
| Madison Dearborn Partners | 6.4% |
| Employees | 5.6% |
| Japan Asia Investment Company | 5.0% |
| Imation | 3.8% |
| Mr. B.J. Cassin | 0.7% |
For more information visit: www.inphase-tech.com ; www.signallake.com
Unedited press release follows:
INPHASE TECHNOLOGIES TO RESTRUCTURE THROUGH CHAPTER 11
Leading Holographic Digital Storage Company To Resolve Creditor Issues By End of Year
FOR RELEASE ON: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2011
LONGMONT, CO – InPhase Technologies, the leader in holographic digital storage, today announced that it has filed for Chapter 11 with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the District of Colorado. The company is seeking to restructure by the end of 2011 as it deals with existing creditors.
Signal Lake, a leading investor in next-generation technology and computer communications companies which acquired the majority stake in InPhase in March, 2010, has been seeking the best possible route for rebuilding the company, and agreed with its partners that Chapter 11 was the most expeditious means of achieving that goal.
“We have sought various ways of re-starting InPhase that would be in the best interest of our stakeholders – including shareholders, creditors, customers, strategic partners and suppliers – and we believe that this restructuring will be the most effective resolution. Our intent is to provide the court with a very achievable business plan, which will treat everyone fairly in the process,” said Bart Stuck, managing director of Signal Lake. “We are dealing with very valuable intellectual property and assets. We need to be very careful to do this right. When the re-structuring of InPhase is complete, the company can finally move forward on the plan that it formulated last year, and deliver the industry’s first commercial holographic digital storage products.”
InPhase owns the largest trove of patents related to holographic digital storage, and has more accumulated know-how than any other company in this field. Signal Lake was the founding lead investor in InPhase, which it helped spin out of Bell Laboratories in conjunction with the then-Lucent New Ventures Group in December, 2000. The company had raised more than $100 million in capital over five rounds of funding, and had produced the world’s first working prototype holographic storage system, dubbed Tapestry™, in addition to winning numerous industry accolades and awards.
InPhase, based in Longmont, Colorado, is led by CEO Art Rancis, Executive Vice President of Engineering James Russo, and Vice President US Customer Development Bland McCartha. Initial InPhase customers have included the likes of Turner Broadcasting.
About InPhase Technologies
InPhase Technologies is the leading developer of holographic data storage recording media and systems. Based in Longmont, Colorado, InPhase was founded in 2000. For more information, please visit www.inphase-tech.com.
About Signal Lake
Founded in 1998, Signal Lake invests in early-stage computer, communications, telecommunications and network infrastructure companies. The firm has capital commitments of more than $130 million over five funds. Signal Lake is headquartered in Westport, Connecticut, and in Boston, Massachusetts and is comprised of leading technology investors and advisors. For more information, please visit www.signallake.com.