Editor's Note: Read our updated article with responses to public speculation about the reasons behind Pano Logic's sudden shut-down here.
Redwood City-based virtualization company Pano Logic - a company the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal reported had doubled its earnings each year between 2008 and 2011 - has mysteriously disappeared, seemingly into thin air.
Just days after issuing a press release that the company had landed a huge new account, remnants of the company are nowhere to be found.
On Oct. 22, the company shouted from the rooftops that Redstone Federal Credit Union - the largest credit union in Alabama, reportedly worth roughly $3 billion - had agreed to replace 75 percent of its PCs with Pano Logic's zero client virtual desktop computing over the next 18 months.
However, barely one week later, the company's Redwood City offices were mysteriously empty, the list of the company's management team had disappeared off its website, and the company's main phone number had been disconnected.
Customers started posting on the company's Facebook page, wondering why their calls were going unanswered.
One poster on the Facebook page said he suspects the company was accused of stealing intellectual property from computer giant Dell, and had been sent a cease-and-desist letter, prompting an immediate - and very quiet - shut-down.
"Makes sense... CEO [John Kish] leaves Wyse, starts Pano. Pano does better than Wyse, Dell buys Wyse, claims CEO used intellectual property from Wyse to build Pano. CEO runs off with our money," wrote a user named Aaron Samborn on Pano's Facebook page.
Editor's Note: Patch has since learned that CEO John Kish joined the company a year ago and had no part in creating the above-mentioned technology.
Another commenter suspects that, whether or not Pano's products were unique, the company just did not have the resources to fight back at Dell and win.
"Turns out Pano didn't do anything 'wrong', and they had a truly unique product and were very profitable. However, they got a cease-and-desist letter and decided that they could not fight back," wrote Facebook user Sean Kubin. "I suspect Dell patent trolled them."
A reporter for the Business Journal reported Thursday that a former spokesperson for the company had confirmed that the company had shut down, but could not give a reason for the sudden closure.
Pano Logic makes hardware and software that allows business users to access workstations running virtually in the cloud without needing common computer hardware like processors or hard drives.
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