Atmospheric, a Microsoft NZ Partner of the Year, goes bust

UPDATED: Atmospheric has hit the wall. Staples Rodway director Tony Maginness has been appointed receiver, he tells NBR.

All but seven of the failed company's 25 staff have been let go.

"They just ran out of funds," Mr Magineness says.

The Staples Rodway man says "there is strong interest already" and he hopes to get a price for the business as a going concern.

He says Atmospheric has "quality customers" but will not name them.

Nor will he comment on any financial specifics at this time, including debt owing. NBR understands there are multiple creditors.

Asked if staff will receive outstanding wages, he says "If we get a good price for the business." 

Sales staff sent home

EARLIER: Sales staff at IT services company Atmospheric have been placed on gardening leave, NBR understands, and have yet to be recalled to the office.

Asked if the sales team was on paid or unpaid leave, one employee told NBR he was treating it as unpaid on the basis that “we've only had one week’s pay in the last seven.”

A member of the Auckland-based company’s technical staff said “I haven’t been paid in weeks.”

Atmospheric has 25 staff; NBR understands around half have been sent home with a skeleton crew looking after customers’ tech support.

The most senior member of the company that NBR has been able to contact, head of commercial operations Georgia Lloyd, said she was not authorised to comment.

Chief executive, sole director and sole shareholder David Verschaffelt has not been available for comment. Ms Lloyd said he was tied up in a series of meetings.

Two staff members told NBR there had been a lack of communication, and that they were unsure of the company’s situation.

Atmospheric, formerly known as Network Agents, is a cloud-specialist, formed in 2008.

In 2015, it won Microsoft New Zealand’s SMB Cloud Partner of the Year award. It is also a finalist in Microsoft NZ's 2016 Partner of the Year awards.

Microsoft had no comment when approached by NBR, other than to confirm that Atmospheric has been on its partner programme for several years and to say "Microsoft is currently working to understand this situation."