WebGain Comes Clean On Imminent Closure

WebGain

In a statement sent to CRN, the embattled tools vendor said it has made "significant cuts in staffing and infrastructure," and that its "primary object is the sale of the company's product lines and all of its other assets."

According to the statement, WebGain will continue to provide support and service for existing WebGain products either through its own or third-party resources. The company also will help transition customers "to parties who have acquired, or will acquire, WebGain assets," the company said.

WebGain cited "rapidly changing market conditions, the absence of a recovery in IT spending" and increased competition in the tools market as reasons for the company's plan to shut down.

In the statement, the company also said it is operating from a location here, having closed its Santa Clara, Calif., office.

Several weeks ago, CRN reported, based on comments from industry observers and a former employee, that WebGain had closed its office in Santa Clara and was operating with a limited staff here. At the time, observers expressed surprise that WebGain had not yet publicly admitted its troubles, a move they thought was unfair to customers.

WebGain launched in March 2000 as a joint investment between Warburg Pincus and BEA Systems. The company's first move was to buy from Symantec the VisualCafe development tool, which since has become a popular Java integrated development environment (IDE).