FalconStor closes Australian offices

Storage vendor FalconStor has closed its Australian offices after just 18 months, CRN has learned.

The US-owned firm, which also provides virtualisation and data protection, shut its Australian offices, said FalconStor's South Asia marketing manager, Seetha Subramany.

"Yes, we decided to close down the office in Australia. It really is a corporate decision," Subramany told CRN.

FalconStor's North Sydney office was opened in 2012. Four employees were made redundant due to the closure.

Subramany said the closure was part of the company's efforts to cut costs. "They wanted to do some rebalancing, so they closed down offices in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong."

The company will continue to maintain an Australian presence through its distributor, DataStor.

"The company decided to appoint a distributor in each country so that all fulfilment and support will be done by a local distributor," Subramany said.

DataStor was not available for comment.

The offices were shut in October, Subramany said. "We notified all the existing customers with a letter, giving them all of the information about who they need to contact."

Ongoing losses

FalconStor is undergoing a restructure as the company looks to put an end to continual losses and return to profitability.

In its most recent NASDAQ earnings report, FalconStor declared a net loss of US$2.27 million for the three months ending 30 September, which was an improvement over the US$3.6 million loss declared during the same period in 2012.

For the nine months ending 30 September, the company declared an operating loss of US$12.5 million, slightly worse than the US$12 million loss incurred for the same period in 2012.

In 2009, the company's stock price peaked at $5.57. In August 2013, it slouched at 0.8861 per share.

In its third quarter filing, the company wrote: "We have eliminated costs, or identified costs to be eliminated in the coming months, totalling $15 million to $18 million on an annualised basis across all regions and functions of the business. These costs consist of both personnel and non-personnel expenses which we identified as not being core to our going forward business plan."

The company plans "to continue to wind down certain costs during the fourth quarter".

FalconStor's share price has since lifted to $1.66 at the time of writing.