Liquidator: 6,500 tech firms among 'walking dead'
Tech company 'doctor of reality' expects another busy year
Wednesday, January 7, 2004 Posted: 9:36 PM EST (0236 GMT)
PALO ALTO, California (AP) -- Amid
rising hopes for a high-tech
turnaround, there's this sobering
sign: Martin Pichinson -- a man
who has buried nearly 150 failed
startups since 1999 -- has swooped
into Silicon Valley like a vulture
lurking over a pack of wounded
animals.
Pichinson, a self-described "doctor of
reality" who helps liquidate companies,
says he wouldn't have moved from Los
Angeles to Palo Alto a few months ago
had he not smelled more high-tech
trouble looming.
"Sadly, it looks like 2004 is going to be
another busy year for me," Pichinson
said. "There's still another 6,500 to 7,500
companies out there who are among the
walking dead."
Even before the move, Pichinson
became a familiar face in Silicon Valley
and other high-tech hubs, largely
because so many venture capitalists
summoned him and his firm, Sherwood
Partners, to help clear the debris left by
the dot-com implosion.
Kozmo.com, iChristian.com and
Alladvantage.com are among the
high-profile casualties bagged by
Pichinson during the past four years.
Pichinson figures more than 50,000
people have lost their jobs on his death
watch.
It's a macabre job that most venture
capitalists abhor.
"Venture capitalists only want to deal with
the top 40 percent of the companies in
their portfolios," Pichinson said. "We get
the bottom of the barrel."
With most of the dregs flowing from
Silicon Valley, Pichinson decided to
move Sherwood's headquarters to the
high-tech center so he's in a better
position to handle the future carnage.
Sometimes, Pichinson and Sherwood's
60 employees are able to salvage
troubled startups by cutting costs and
training the executives to rethink their
ways. Sherwood even brings in an FBI
consultant specializing in hostage
negotiation techniques to help
management.
Continues.........
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