AVRUNIN@cs.umass.EDU (George Avrunin) (02/02/88)
I just called the Boston office and got some kind of switchboard or answering service. I left a message for Roger Klorese. A little while later I got a call from someone in San Diego who said that Roger was no longer with the company, as of Friday (!), indicated that nobody was in the Boston office any more, and offerred to find out the information I wanted. Paul Lahti, from the Chemistry department here, then called the New Jersey office. He got a person who said she didn't know what was going on but had been instructed to refer all calls to San Diego. Paul then called San Diego and was told that all the east coast offices had been closed, that all support and service would now be handled out of San Diego, and that we will be getting a letter (at some unspecified time in the future) explaining all this. Does anybody have any idea what's going on? Dan Mell was out here from the Boston office last week to install some stuff for us and to install the 1260 that Chemistry just bought, and didn't indicate that he knew about anything like this coming, and certainly nobody said anything about it while Chemistry was ordering their new machine. The idea of service from San Diego makes us a more than a bit nervous, and the people in Chemistry are really unhappy. Does anybody know how shaky Celerity's financial situation really is? Or how they really expect to run service from San Diego? George Avrunin avrunin@cs.umass.edu Department of Mathematics avrunin@umass.bitnet University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA 01003
ortiz-luis%YALE.ARPA@BU-IT.BU.EDU (Luis Francisco Ortiz) (02/03/88)
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 88 17:18 EDT
From: George Avrunin <AVRUNIN%cs.umass.edu@bu-it.BU.EDU>
X-Vms-To: IN%"info-celerity@dolphin.bu.edu"
I just called the Boston office and got some kind of switchboard ...
Does anybody have any idea what's going on? ...
Does anybody know how shaky Celerity's financial situation really is? Or
how they really expect to run service from San Diego?
George Avrunin
After I just convinced a friend at the MIT speech lab to consider
using a Celerity for a file server, he too got shunted off to
California when he callled on Monday morning.
From what I understand, (from unnamed sources) they slipped up again
in production for their new 60000 series machines and they are now in
such shacky ground financially, that they were forced to close up the
east coast operations.
I just finished leaving messages at the homes of freinds of mine in
the company, so if I hear anything, I'll be shure to update readers of
this list.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Luis F. Ortiz Arpa: Ortiz-Luis@Yale.EDU , ortiz@Think.COM
Programmer at Large Uucp: {harvard,decvax,linus,seismo}!yale!ortiz
Bitnet: ortiz@YALECS.BITNET, ortheca@yalevmx.BITNETortiz-luis%YALE.ARPA@BU-IT.BU.EDU (Luis Francisco Ortiz) (02/04/88)
I got in touch with a friend of mine who worked for Celerity.
The offices in DC, NJ, Detroit, and Houston were all closed. On
last Thursday a memo came down from corprate headquarters saying that
an unspecified number of people would be laid off. On Friday, it was
announced that all field offices would be shut down. Furthermore, at
San Diego, much of the staff was pared down to base essentials (core
software and hardware engineers).
Around 50 people were involved.
They appearantly just ran out of money, and in order to try to
complete their new product, pared down operations so that they could
operate for a few months on the money they had remaining.
It could be very serious if they don't.
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Luis F. Ortiz Arpa: ortiz-luis@cs.yale.edu , ortiz@think.com
Programmer at Large Uucp: {harvard,decvax,linus,seismo}!yale!ortiz
Bitnet: ortiz@yalecs.bitnet, ortheca@yalevmx.bitnetQux@GOLDILOCKS.MIT.EDU (David H. Kaufman) (02/04/88)
Date: Wed, 3 Feb 88 11:54:41 EST
From: Luis Francisco Ortiz <ortiz-luis@YALE.ARPA>
I got in touch with a friend of mine who worked for Celerity.
The offices in DC, NJ, Detroit, and Houston were all closed. On
last Thursday a memo came down from corprate headquarters saying that
an unspecified number of people would be laid off. On Friday, it was
announced that all field offices would be shut down. Furthermore, at
San Diego, much of the staff was pared down to base essentials (core
software and hardware engineers).
Around 50 people were involved.
They appearantly just ran out of money, and in order to try to
complete their new product, pared down operations so that they could
operate for a few months on the money they had remaining.
This from a Celerity sales rep in the San Diego office: they have been
having trouble getting parts for the new machine from their supplier.
(As it was told to me, the problems were all on the supplier's end, but
use your own judgement. Nothing perjorative was said about the
supplier.) As a result, the expected ship date of the 6000 has slipped
from January to October. The sales rep said that they were basically
trying to sit on the 1260 line, and ride out the storm until the 6000
comes out.
It could be very serious if they don't.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Luis F. Ortiz Arpa: ortiz-luis@cs.yale.edu , ortiz@think.com
+-> Programmer at Large Uucp: {harvard,decvax,linus,seismo}!yale!ortiz
| Bitnet: ortiz@yalecs.bitnet, ortheca@yalevmx.bitnet
|
+--- Don't believe this folks, he's quite thin.
David H. Kaufman
Qux@Goldilocks.MIT.EDUjohnw@astroatc.UUCP (John F. Wardale) (02/09/88)
In article <8802031548.AA08242@SUNED.ZOO.CS.YALE.EDU> ortiz-luis%YALE.ARPA@BU-IT.BU.EDU (Luis Francisco Ortiz) writes: > I just called the Boston office and got some kind of switchboard ... >From what I understand, (from unnamed sources) they slipped up again >in production for their new 60000 series machines and they are now in >such shacky ground financially, that they were forced to close up the >east coast operations. From a very small article in EE-times (or was in Info-Rumor??) C E L E R I T Y D R O P S 6 4-B I T P L A N S, I D L E S 7 0 laid off 70 percent of its 100 person workforce. "[Celerity] now plans to cease all non-engineering functions anc concentrate on completein ongoing development of its 2nd gen. product, in order to sell the remaining operations" "reduction is sue to a shortage of a specific semiconductor. The part constraint would prevent if rom shipping any Series 6000 [machines] 1st half." "The fate of the [C1230 C1260 machines] with an installed base of approx. 200 systems could not be ascertained by press time." ========================= Anyone *KNOW* what the missing "part" is? (I [and others??] have my [our] idea, but it's speculative!) DISCLAIMER: This never happend...I don't exist, and if I did I'd speak only for me...blah...blah...blah -- John Wardale ... {seismo | harvard | ihnp4} ! {uwvax | cs.wisc.edu} ! astroatc!johnw To err is human, to really foul up world news requires the net!
ortiz-luis%YALE.ARPA@BU-IT.BU.EDU (Luis Francisco Ortiz) (02/09/88)
"reduction is sue to a shortage of a specific semiconductor. The part
constraint would prevent if rom shipping any Series 6000 [machines]
1st half."
=========================
Anyone *KNOW* what the missing "part" is? (I [and others??] have my
[our] idea, but it's speculative!)
The missing part is (or so my sources tell me) the CPU chipset for the
Series 6000. It was due to be produced over a year ago, but since
then only underspec parts have been produced.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Luis F. Ortiz Arpa: ortiz-luis@cs.yale.edu , ortiz@think.com
Programmer at Large Uucp: {harvard,decvax,linus,seismo}!yale!ortiz
Bitnet: ortiz@yalecs.bitnet, ortheca@yalevmx.bitnet