After less than six months in the X Window terminal market, eXplain Solutions Ltd, based in London, has folded. The company’s managing director, Howard Sayles, says that the company ran out of money because of a lack of short-term contracts. We could find people who wanted UKP3m worth of business over a few years, but failed to get any quick profit deals. Although we broke even, we could not pay our wages and decided to call it a day. He claims this is typical of the market in general, because taking on X is a major strategic decision: X Window is still embryonic, and with the recession people are delaying their decision-making. A former Metrologie International SA employee, Sayles says eXplain was restricted from attacking the Metrologie X terminal customer base. Now he is working as a sales director for Acer/Altos UK Ltd. Former eXplain colleagues Lisa Hammond and Brian Mulligan are still out looking for new positions.
