With Hydra reaching its second beta, there’s been a chorus of noise from vendors hoping either to make money from products that take advantage of the Microsoft Corp Windows Terminal Server, or offering software with similar kinds functionality. That’s what makes Exodus Technologies Inc’s silence on the subject so strange. Or maybe not. Turns out Exodus is on the block and troubled parent American United Global Inc is seeking a buyer or investor for its 80.4%-owned subsidiary. Exodus had been promising a new version of its NTerprise multi-client software available for use with Hydra but there’s not been a peep out of the Bellvue, Washington-based company. It had hinted its financial woe would be a thing of the past within days, suggesting a white knight was on its way. However our calls are now being routed to CEO Steve Kangas who hasn’t returned any. AUGI has been looking to get out of the software business for some time, apparently regarding its foray into IT as a folly it wishes it hadn’t embarked on. The AUGI board says it recognizes that our venture into the computer software industry has, for a number of reasons beyond our control, proven to be less than successful. After Microsoft announced that it would incorporate its own multi-user software in future versions of NT and that only its Windows T share client/server protocol and Citrix Systems Inc ICA application remote software protocol would be supported in Hydra AUGI saw the writing on the wall, cut around a third of Exodus’ staff and began seeking a buyer. AUGI said it explored whether the Exodus protocols could be redesigned to support Unix and Java instead on NT but determined they couldn’t. Exodus thinks its remote server and remote monitoring products could form the basis of a new product line but it needs investment.
Nowhere
AUGI lost $2.6m on sales of $86.4m in the first six months of the year. Its share price is a little under $2 and has been delisted from Nasdaq’s national market exchange. AUGI is a holding company for a range of operations including its main business, Western Power & Equipment Co which sells construction equipment. AUGI’s about to be taken over by Conese Enterprises which has agreed to invest between $4.0 and $5.5 in AUGI stock convertible at $2 per share, with warrants to buy shares in its other businesses and holdings. If approved at a shareholder meeting next month, AUGI CEO Robert Rubin will be replaced by Eugene Conese Jr and five other members of the AUGI board will resign. They don’t appear to have any interest in the Exodus business. Observers say Exodus’ problem was being late to market and not pushing its Prologue- based multi-user NT software hard enough. If it had been quicker and more aggressive it could have been on a par with Citrix instead of nowhere, argues another ISV in the same part of the industry. The same ISV and other companies are gathering like vultures as engineers with multi-user NT skills – such as Exodus’ people – are hot property right now. Exodus inherited its work from former parent ConnectSoft Inc one of three companies including Citrix and Prologue which had been developing multiuser NT software for years. It spliced its technology with Prologue’s multiuser operating system. The rump of ConnectSoft, Connectsoft Communications Corp is another AUGI subsidiary focused on the integration of email, fax, phone and other messaging environments.
