Pandesic set to close down

Pandesic, the Intel/SAP-owned solution provider for business-to-consumer ventures, said late Friday that it is going out of business and would be laying off its 400 staff.

The Silicon Valley-based company, which opened offices in London and Tokyo earlier this year, said it would wind down its operations because it "does not see a timely road to profitability due to slower than anticipated market acceptance of business-to-consumer ecommerce solutions".

The news came 24 hours after it was revealed that key executives had quit the company. Chief executive and chairman Harold Hughes, former chief financial officer at Intel who was put in charge at Pandesic when it started in 1997, resigned citing "personal reasons". President Pete Wolcott, another Intel veteran who joined Pandesic as director of product management, cited similar reasons for his departure.

Pandesic, which was launched with much fanfare three years ago, provided a full range of products and services to create ecommerce operations, and claims to have some 100 customers including Microsoft and Adidas.

It has long been rumoured that Pandesic, which in reality was a pioneer in the application service provider space, was not fulfilling its potential. At SAP's recent user conference in Las Vegas, co-founder and co-chairman Hasso Plattner told reporters that Pandesic was having trouble creating revenue. "We're not where we wanted to be," he said.