Intransa is Dead, Long Live IntransaBrand!

CP
Carlton Purvis
Published Jul 09, 2013 04:00 AM
PUBLIC - This article does not require an IPVM subscription. Feel free to share.

Since 2012, Intransa had been fighting to keep its head above water after spending more than $100 million in hopes of becoming the standard appliance for VMS software. In March 2013, Intransa laid off all of its employees. Then a memo announcing Viakoo’s receivership started circulating. Viakoo, a company made up of “several ex-Intransa engineers” said it had purchased the source code for Intransa and began selling Intransa services to the company's former customers. Now, Instransa has relaunched under Viakoo as IntransaBrand [link no longer available], according to a press release the company published [link no longer available] on Monday.

Here are the before and after photos:

Viakoo now features all of Intransa’s core offerings in its IntransaBrand line including its software and CEO [link no longer available]. The new site says IntransaBrand has partnered with Hitachi Data Systems [link no longer available] to offer server and storage solutions at low-cost. Multiple IPVM sources say that Intransa was in negotiations with Hitachi before going out of business. 

What Happened

What Intransa has done operates similar to a bankruptcy, according to the accounting firm who processed the transaction. They would not talk specifically about Intransa’s case but explained it as an alternative to bankruptcy, a company can sell its assets and “in this case they found a buyer ... Another person has decided to roll the dice on this company to see where it goes.” The name of the buyer was not disclosed.

Anything Different?

We contacted Intransa to see what they planned to do differently this time around and find out details of its partnership with Hitachi. Phone calls and emails were not returned. However, from the website claims, it appears the offering will remain largely the same, which would be puzzling considering that strategy lead to the previous collapse.

Brand Loyalty?

Sticking with the Intransa name (i.e., rebranding as "IntransaBrand") is risky considering the ill will Intransa has generated among users that were left abandoned after Viakoo took over. Also, while Intransa did spent millions on marketing over the last decade, it is not a major name brand even within the surveillance industry.

Like Nothing Ever Happened

One positive marketing impact of switching from 'Intransa' to 'IntransaBrand' is that the company can act like nothing happened. The Intransa website now redirects to the IntransaBrand website, but the company has never publicly acknowledged that it went into receivership. The site features all of Intransa’s old white papers and products re-branded under the "IntransaBrand" brand.

For those people who are not aware what happened, Intransa can just act like it is business as usual, though, of course, it is far from it.

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