They’re Back, VIO Resurrected with New Funding

7/4/01 – (Source: PrintPlanet.com) According to sources familiar with the company’s financial condition, VIO has found an investor to continue the company’s operations. England based VIO www.vio.com is a file transfer company working with organizations in the print and graphic arts industry.

PrintPlanet.com reported on April 13th, that VIO would cease operations by the end of the summer. Sources said the company had experienced significant losses and was unable to attract the needed funding to continue the operation. Scitex, who owned a portion of the VIO with British Telecom, said in February that they would divest of their shares in anticipation of a management buy out. An agreement was never reached.

VIO had sent letters to customers explaining the shut down. The letter stated that VIO “would continue operating it’s core service until the end of June and provide basic Internet service until the end of July.”

Sources say the funding comes from a group of former Trinity Mirror managers who have an interest in the secure distribution of data and information. Andrew Hood, US Operations Manager for VIO told PrintPlanet.com today that everyone is very excited. “Much has happened in the last week as you can imagine. We have been waiting on this for a while.” Hood said Miranda Clegg will lead the marketing efforts out of the UK, but many of the structural decisions have not been finalized. “We have a small staff in the US, but the management team is in the process of making offers to keep many of the employees.”

The secure, file transfer business has been under great pressure recently with uncertainty about Wam!Net and the closing of DAX. However, DAX was purchased by Torque and Wam!Net says they will secure their needed funding. Other companies in this space, GroupLogic and FileFlow have reported solid growth in recent months. GroupLogic and FileFlow both fired out “VIO Conversion Program Press Releases” as soon as VIO announced their potential shut down.

Hood says they are not worried and VIO would be back to business as usual. “We know we will continue to offer products and services in the UK, France and North America. With this investor group comes a full research team that will add much credibility to our services. We hope to show our strength and capitalize on the recent struggles companies in this space have experienced.”