Athenix Corp, the start-up X terminals company, has hit a brick wall, forcing it to try to sell itself off or auction its supposedly breakthrough Multi-X technology. The venture, now some 26 months old, had assembled an impressive launch team behind an aggressive plan to produce low-cost full-page 15 bit-mapped monochrome X terminals based on the R3000 RISC chip and some homegrown ASICs. The idea, based on a shared controller architecture, was to come in at two to four times the performance of a conventional X box and reach pricing levels of $700 to $800 per user in two to three years. The Sunnyvale, California company’s first problem was with the ASICs, which were six months late. The delay necessitated going back for a third round of venture capital it got through the $12m brought in by the first two rounds. Athenix was looking for another $8m to tide it over, but it seems that it couldn’t get more than $4.5m pledged. Two of its lead investors declined to participate: MIPS Computer Systems Inc because it had problems of its own and Singapore-based Wearnes Technology Pte, its manufacturing arm, because it was said to have got distracted by the deal to make Ambra personal computers for IBM UK Ltd. The situation forced the company to six from 35 people and start looking for either a buyer or non-exclusive licensees. According to vice-president Sparky Sparks, who remains with the company, there are now two potential buyers and three unspecified deals on the table. Since the original investment is pretty much written off, the firm can be had for a real bargain, he said, unwilling to name the price. Sparks, who was one of the original seven in the IBM Personal Computer group, claimed that Athenix is 60 to 90 days away from shipping product. The original distribution channels through Merisel Inc and Dickens Data Corp, which service to be handled by Xerox Corp remain in place.
