QuVIS closes its doors

http://www.cjonline.com/stories/120908/bus_365359453.shtml

 

By Michael Hooper

The Capital-Journal

Published Tuesday, December 09, 2008

QuVIS, a Topeka technology company that tried to woo Hollywood into using its digital cinema technology, has closed its doors, the company's founder said Monday.

QuVIS laid off 29 employees Dec. 1, said Kenbe Goertzen, QuVIS president and founder.

The company, which has 1,900 shareholders, many in Topeka, was struggling under $40 million in debt and insufficient revenue. It fought to meet payroll in its last three months.

Goertzen was sitting alone in front of a laptop Monday at 2921 S.W. Wanamaker Drive. He said he was communicating with secured note holders and shareholders, trying to find a way to reorganize.

"I'm providing volunteer labor to see if anyone wants to reorganize in any way," Goertzen said. "It is complicated and difficult at this 11th hour. We were still getting good reviews on our products, but we have limited maneuvering with no funds."

Goertzen said it is possible the company may enter bankruptcy. He said the assets of the company were "intellectual property, furniture, inventory, receivables, name, blue sky — anything could be considered an asset under a secured note."

In the early 2000s, QuVIS, marketed itself to Hollywood and was able to digitize several movies, such as "Toy Story II," "Bounce," "Shrek" and "The Perfect Storm."

"A lot of eggs were put in the digital cinema basket, but that came to a screeching halt," Goertzen said.

Goertzen founded QuVIS in 1994 in Topeka after working for another technology company called NewTek, which moved to San Antonio, Texas, from Topeka.

Goertzen acknowledged timing wasn't good to raise money because of the financial market meltdown.

"Whether or not we can get out of here has yet to be seen," he said.

Michael Hooper can be reached at (785) 295-1293 or michael.hooper@cjonline.com.

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Reader Comments

Posted by: irritated at Dec. 9, 2008 at 6:28:40 am

They "fought" to make payroll only the first of those 3 months. They didn't even bother the last 2. Those employees are still owed 2 months of paychecks. They just kept stringing them along.

Posted by: NotSomeoneYouKnow at Dec. 9, 2008 at 8:07:06 am

Sounds like a bad deal all the way around. I wish the former employees the best of luck.

Posted by: sizzafritz at Dec. 9, 2008 at 8:11:22 am

If 2 months of payroll are indeed unpaid, then why did the layoffs only occur on Dec 1? Sounds like further proof of poor management decisions. Good luck to their employees to ever see that money.

Posted by: fishermen at Dec. 9, 2008 at 8:49:49 am

Me thinks me wants to invest 5 billion dollars - NOT !!

Posted by: Lothar2008 at Dec. 9, 2008 at 9:47:40 am

QuVIS had many problems. They were in the wrong field for their product line. As soon as the Digital Cinema Group went with JPEG2000 as the standard, and not QPE (the QuVIS standard), they should have imediately changed focus to military and medical applications. Instead, they listened to their VP for Cinema Implimentation, and stayed in a direction that they really couldn't compete. Sony was giving servers to theater chains, QuVIS couldn't. Sony was using off the shielf PC's, QuVIS was producing custom designed servers (read more expenisve). It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figgure out what happened.

I feel sorry for the employees there. They are an extreamly tallented bunch of people. It's a shame that bad decisions killed the company

Posted by: rickkuhlman at Dec. 9, 2008 at 10:01:02 am

There were alot of talented hard working people there. Good luck to each and everyone of you.

Posted by: fishermen at Dec. 9, 2008 at 10:27:59 am

Geezz I wonder who their VP of Cinema Impli. was ?

Posted by: Lothar2008 at Dec. 9, 2008 at 12:16:11 pm

While I won't give his name, he ame to QuVIS from a cinema group that ran a large chain of theaters. He was brought in to help get a foot hold into Digital Cinema, but his contacts didn't seem to help. Again, it was bad decisions made by people that didn't really understand what they were getting into. Medical and defense applications were more suited to the technology that QuVIS used, but
by the time anyone really saw that Digial Cinema wasn't going to work, it was really to late.

+ 2 Rating

Posted by: RNrabbit at Dec. 9, 2008 at 12:32:06 pm

The lack of integrity and ignorance is what has led Kenbe to his demise. Unfortunately his lack of business sense and poor judgement has affected the lives of many others. He should be held liable for the pain and suffering he has inflicted on his employees.