BUSINESS
Unlimited cuts all staff, shuts down
28-05-2003
by
Unlimited, one of the veterans of Ireland's e-learning sector and a tenant in the Digital Hub, has ceased trading, resulting in the loss of nearly 30 jobs.
ElectricNews.Net has learned that after talks to merge with another e-learning firm failed, investors, company executives and Unlimited's co-founder and chief executive officer, Emmett Hedigan, have chosen to wind up the 14-year-old company. Around 28 workers will lose their jobs as a result of the shutdown.
Unlimited delivered training programmes and solutions using a variety of digital formats, including the Web, CD-ROM and video. Among the courses it delivered were IC3, MOUS, Agent i, and a litany of other resources that taught skills ranging from eCRM to health and safety. The company was probably best known for delivering ECDL e-learning solutions, which had brought Unlimited EUR6.7 million in revenues since 1997.
Speaking with ElectricNews.Net, CEO Hedigan said the firm's failure rests squarely on his shoulders. "There is no one to blame but me. We had huge successes and grew very fast, peaking in 2001 when we had EUR4.3 million in turnover. But, as it turns out, we spent far too much developing new products last year."
"Having new products is great, but there has to be a market. You couldn't pick a worse time to spend money on developing new products," he said. Hedigan said that although the company was working on a number of new training tools, it was a PC training application that cost the most to create.
The company had a fairly illustrious history, starting in 1989 when it was founded in Cork by Hedigan and Brendan Thompson. By 1994 it had opened a Dublin office, and the next year it was describing itself as the largest multimedia training company in Ireland and the UK. Over the next few years it opened offices in Wicklow, Scotland and Belfast and broadened its product offering dramatically. The firm's employment level topped out in 2001 at close to 80, many of whom were brought on board to help create new products. Last year, the company had turnover of EUR3.2 million.
Interestingly, Unlimited was one of the first companies to move into the Digital Hub, the section of Dublin in the Liberties/Coombe area that is being redeveloped as a home to indigenous digital media companies. Unlimited moved to the area in February 2002, and in December 2002, along with Educational Multimedia Corporation and four other firms, Unlimited was named as one of the fixt six tenants in the Digital Hub's "One Five Seven" building.
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