Data-warehousing appliance startup Dataupia is putting its assets up for sale, according to a former employee.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts, company slashed its staff by roughly two-thirds earlier this year, saying at the time that it hoped to continue operating and find new investors.
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But it has now executed another round of layoffs in order to reduce costs while shopping its technology, said Samantha Stone, formerly vice president of marketing at Dataupia. Stone lost her job in the most recent layoffs, she said.
"I'm disappointed, but it's the right thing to do for the company," Stone said of the plans to sell.
A "small team" remains in place to support customers and work on acquisition plans, she added. Stone declined to say what the company's asking price is and referred further questions to Dataupia CFO Jeffrey Cooper, who could not immediately be reached for comment.
Dataupia is known for its Satori Server appliance, which combines servers, storage, and optimization software. The vendor has touted Satori's compatibility with multiple databases, such as Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server.
But as a startup, the company faced a tough competitive environment, competing both with large players like Teradata as well as a range of smaller companies, such as Netezza, as well as a severe downturn in the venture capital market. It secured $16 million in Series B financing in November 2007.
Dataupia's technology may prove enticing to certain buyers, both for its agnostic approach to database support, as well as its MPP (massively parallel processing) capabilities, which allow for large-scale deployments, Forrester Research analyst James Kobielus said via e-mail.
Data warehousing vendors who lack MPP capabilities and would therefore benefit from Dataupia's IP include SAP, which has taken a similarly open approach to database support with its Business Information Warehouse product, he said.
A potential smaller suitor for Dataupia may be its partner, Kalido, since it lacks a "turnkey" appliance offering and has been focusing on areas like modeling tools for existing data warehouse environments, Kobielus said.
SAP declined comment.
A Kalido spokesman said via e-mail that the company is not in discussions to buy Dataupia's IP. Kalido examined a number of data-warehousing appliance vendors, and earlier this year decided to enter a partnership with Netezza, he added.