PROVIDENCE, R.I., Sep 19, 2002 (Providence Journal - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News via COMTEX) -- Access Solutions International announced yesterday that it plans to liquidate its assets and dissolve itself.
The North Kingstown company was once one of Rhode Island's promising high-technology firms, selling computer devices and software that stored huge amounts of information.
It had a short but impressive list of customers that included Securities Industry Automation Corp., the company that runs the computer systems that power the New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange.
ASI will become the latest in several high-tech firms in Rhode Island that have gone out of business over the last two years. EBT International, of Providence, liquidated its assets a year ago; Mesa Systems International, of Warwick, said in June 2001 that it would shut its doors; and two years ago, Tradesafe.com, of Providence, ceased operations.
ASI's chief problem, according to company chairman Thomas Gardner, is that it ran out of money, which was partly due to the failure of a plan to merge with New Jersey-based PaperClip Software more than two years ago. Access Solutions had lent PaperClip about $2.5 million before the merger was to take place, Gardner said.
"When the merger fell apart, the cash position was relatively small, and the company couldn't afford to keep developers on," Gardner said in a telephone interview yesterday. "It went into a maintenance mode at that point."
The company continued to service existing customers but stopped development and sales efforts, he said.
ASI currently employs just four workers plus two consultants. In 1997, it employed 32 people.
The company also announced that it has sold its remaining hardware and software-maintenance contracts to Computer Upgrade Corp., of Corona, Calif., a privately held company that specializes in storage products that work on different types of computer systems. ASI will receive half of the gross margin on the contracts from July 1, 2002, through July 1, 2004.
The company didn't disclose the price. According to its annual report for the fiscal year that ended in June 2001, sales were $946,000, and about $800,000 of that was for servicing its customers. Gardner said that figure remained constant this year.
ASI said it worked at length to find a buyer for the entire company but was unsuccessful.
In a statement, ASI said its board of directors also considered whether it should continue operations. However, it determined that "the lack of sales, the lack of personnel remaining at the company, the lack of demand for its product and the downturn in the company's market would only cause an erosion of the company's cash and asset value."
"It's far better to close it down this way than go through bankruptcy," Gardner said in the interview. "At least the shareholders end up with something."
How much they will get hasn't been determined yet, he said. Shareholders still have to meet to approve the liquidation plan. After that meeting, the price each will get per share will be calculated, he said. The meeting date hasn't been scheduled yet, Gardner added.
ASI customized computer hardware and packaged it with its own software to link mainframe computers to a disk-storage system. Its technology could control a robotic arm that could automatically change disks and tapes as needed. The systems sold for $200,000 to $900,000.
Its customers were companies that needed to store huge amounts of data. They included high-profile firms such as Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. and Prudential Securities.
Access Solutions began in 1983 as a division of Aquidneck Data Corp., of Middletown, a defense contractor. When Aquidneck was sold to Kodak in 1986, some employees spun the division into a new company. It set up in North Kingstown as Aquidneck Systems International. The name was changed to Access Solutions International just before a 1996 public stock offering.
That offering raised about $9.2 million. Its stock reached an all-time high of $5.25 on Feb. 3, 1997.
The company's shares were delisted in March 1999 from the Nasdaq SmallCap Market. Shares continue to be traded on the OTC Bulletin Board under the symbol ASIC.
By Timothy C. Barmann To see more of the Providence Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.projo.com
(c) 2002, Providence Journal, R.I. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Busines
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