From CNET’s account:
“In retrospect, it would have been a good idea to sell
the company to Red Hat, Batten said. Red Hat this spring offered a
“modest price, but it would have been better to have sold the
company for something rather than nothing,” Batten said.Great Bridge is working with Red Hat and other companies to try
to find jobs for its staff, he added. …The company lowered its
pricing scheme after Red Hat joined the fray, and it found more
customers were interested in paying for hourly consulting rather
than annual support deals.”
Press Release — NORFOLK, Va., September 6, 2001
— Great Bridge LLC, the company that pioneered commercial
distribution and support of the PostgreSQL open source database,
announced today that it has ceased business operations. Great
Bridge, founded in May 2000 by Norfolk, Virginia-based media
conglomerate Landmark Communications, Inc., initiated a search for
additional investors or an acquirer in July of this year. This
search did not generate a qualified investor or acquirer, and Great
Bridge’s board decided to close the business.
During its 16 months of operations, Great Bridge recorded an
impressive list of accomplishments, including assembling the
industry’s deepest talent pool of PostgreSQL expertise; releasing
the first-ever commercially distributed version of PostgreSQL;
recording more than 19,000 downloads of its Great Bridge PostgreSQL
software and 40,000 downloads of its Great Bridge PostgreSQL
documentation; launching www.greatbridge.org , a development
community which hosted more the 100 PostgreSQL-related projects;
and being named to FORTUNE magazine’s ’25 Coolest Global
Companies.’ The company was not able, however, to turn this
momentum into revenues that met its business plan milestones.
“We remain convinced that open source solutions, and in
particular the PostgreSQL database, present compelling and viable
alternatives for business computing,” said Frank Batten Jr.,
chairman of Landmark Communications and founder of Great Bridge.
“The board was not convinced that, given the current economic
climate, the company could generate revenues at a level to meet the
required expenses of the business within the company’s funding
horizon.”
Great Bridge will retain a limited number of employees to manage
its closure.
Contact: info@greatbridge.com