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::BUSINESS

Nua may be close to collapse
Friday, March 16 2001
by Tony O'Brien

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More gloomy news has come for the IT industry in Ireland with a report that Nua, the Internet consultancy, may be close to collapsing.

The report in the Irish Independent said that a life-saving funding deal with British investor, Garnham Corporate Finance, has fallen through.

Nua -- which is 20 per cent owned by Eircom -- is said to be in a perilous state with the next few days being crucial to its future.

Already 22 staff have gone in a restructuring operation and the company now only employs 35 people.

As ElectricNews.Net reported last month, Nua had been hoping to receive IEP3 million from Garnham Corporate Finance which is run from the UK by Irishman John McKeon.

It had been anticipated that Garnham would invest an initial IEP1.5 million in a two-stage funding process that would see Nua receive a similar amount in a second stage, conditional on its reaching certain sales targets. The Garnham deal was also to have included a listing for Nua on the AIM stock market in the UK.

But now the Irish Independent report suggests that the deal is off after difficulties apparently arose in the talks with Garnham.

It said that there was now an immediate need for new funding and next Tuesday was described as "make-or-break" day for the Gerry McGovern-headed company.

The search for new funding has now apparently turned to an un-named London-based Internet content management company which wants to distribute Nua's product, the Irish Independent said.

The report said difficulties were understood to have arisen over the Garnham funding after the UK company adopted what was described as an "aggressive" approach in the stake it wanted in Nua in return for the funding.

It said the option of further funding form Eircom disappeared with the new focus on costs at the telecoms company.

A gloomy reminder for the remaining Nua staff is that Eircom withdrew funding from Ebeon earlier this year, leading to the collapse of that company with the loss of 170 jobs.

In recent times, Nua also changed its business model. It started to concentrate on selling its NuaPublish Internet content management product rather than its consultancy services, the paper said.

Nua was founded by Gerry McGovern along with Niall O'Sullivan and Antoin O Lachtnain. Other shareholders include U2 accountant, Ossie Kilkenny, Enfer Scientific and Enterprise Ireland.

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