Syncronys Softcorp, the Culver City, California-based software house most famous for having to withdraw its SoftRAM memory maximizer software for PCs from the market back in 1995, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company has debts of $4.7m and assets of $200,000. Levene, Neale, Bender & Rankin LLP will act as the company’s bankruptcy council, and the company says it will continue in operations pending completion of reorganization and refinancing. Whether or not the company ever re-emerges is open to some question. Back in 1995, the company was forced to withdraw SoftRAM 95, supposed to double the amount of RAM available on a PC through compression techniques, after widespread complaints that it didn’t work. Most of the company’s creditors are thought to be customers that did not receive their promised rebates. Syncronys, which recently reported a net loss of $2.4m on revenues of $300,000 for its third quarter, and nine month net losses of $5.8m on revenues of 700,000, had been trying to re-invent itself with a series of PC utility product launches. The most recent was UpgradeAID98, a product supposed to enable Windows 98 to be de-installed, for customers worried about the upgrade. But the launch was greeted with scepticism from users, who in posts to the internet reported that the tool had caused system crashes.
á
