First, publicly held Loudcloud on Tuesday reported a US$60.3 million first-quarter loss, and by midday Wednesday its stock had fallen to $2.60, as a number of analysts downgraded the company.
Loudcloud, the brainchild of Netscape founder Marc Andreessen, also announced it would take a charge of up to $28 million in the second quarter due to a previously announced restructuring.
Meanwhile, Xuma, which began life three years ago as an e-commerce ASP and transitioned to selling software tools and managed services, was in even worse condition.
The company's venture investors, including Broadview Capital Partners, said earlier in the week that the company was "prevented from [obtaining] sufficient funding" to continue operations, and that its VCs were working with Xuma to find new sources of capital. Xuma itself said it would have a major announcement on Tuesday regarding a possible strategic alliance, and the company denied to reporters and hosting customers that it was going out of business.
However, no such announcement has been forthcoming and the company's headquarters phone was not in service on Wednesday afternoon. A spokesman at Broadview Capital would only reiterate its previous statement, noting the VC would have no further comment on the status of Xuma.
Xuma was also said to have had a heavy layoff within the past week. It had earlier cut about 50 percent of its staff in response to the dot-com meltdown and lengthening sales cycles.
