Mako receiver in sale talks
PLUS: Staff dismissed after Spark – owed $26m – appoints receivers but customers still being covered.
Technology Editor Chris Keall talks about Mako on NBR Radio and on demand on MyNBR Radio.
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A sale of Mako Networks is possible, says one of its receivers.
“We’ve started talking to a range of parties about purchasing the business,” Neale Jackson, of KordaMentha, tells NBR.
“It’s got a product that’s proven and a number of big customers,” Mr Jackson says.
"Whether that’s an overseas buyer or a New Zealand buyer remains to be seen."
Stephen Khov of Waterstone Insolvency was appointed liquidator on Friday morning. He shut the doors at the company's Albany, Auckland headquarters and dismissed 39 staff.
Mako’s only secured creditor, Spark, appointed KordaMentha’s Mr Jackson and Brendan Gibson receivers on Friday afternoon.
NBR has been told by two well-placed sources that Mako owes Spark $26 million. Mr Jackson says he can’t confirm a number at this point.
Mako makes hardware network security appliances, which are sold to companies with multiple bricks-and-mortar retail operations, then managed via the cloud.
Mr Jackson stresses that “The system is still operating, customers are still being serviced. Core infrastructure continues to operate.”
Mako’s network of partners and resellers has stepped into the breach to maintain remote management.
The status of Mako’s 10 to 15 overseas staff and its small US operation is unclear but Mr Jackson says large US customers were already being serviced by reseller partners rather than Mako itself.
In a recent interview with NBR, Mako director Bill Farmer said his company had landed a $4 million deal with Chevron in the US and that a deal twice that size with BP in the same market was being finalised. A $30 million deal with a third Fortune 50 company was close, he claimed.
From investigations so far, it seems Mako has indeed made significant headway in the US – albeit it at a cost too heavy for its balance sheet to bear.
Before its collapse on Friday, Mako was owned by its managers and co-founders.
Chris Keall
Mon, 24 Aug 2015
Mon, 24 Aug 2015
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