Convera Corporation Liquidated
November 18, 2009
Convera, according to Guru Focus is in liquidation mode. You can get the gory details and a link to the SEC filed 14c statement in “Liquidation Play: Convera Corporation (CNVR).” I wrote about Convera in one of the early editions of the Enterprise Search Report. The write up summarized the assertions about the Convera system. Few people in the enterprise search game recall Excalibur’s origin as a document scanning outfit or the meshing of the ConQuest system with Excalibur technology. I bet, however, that the NBA and Intel remember. The Intel deal apparently hit a small pot hole.
Source: http://www.picturesfromjamaica.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/05/pothole-garelli-02.jpg
Both of those firms found the blandishments of Convera most compelling. Both NBA and Intel moved away from Convera, setting off a financial chain of events that seems to be reaching another pivotal point in its history. There will be a distribution, but it certainly looks as though Convera may be following in the footsteps of other search and content processing companies that could not survive in an increasingly tough market. Convera morphed into a vertical search company, but Google gives that function away in a couple of different services. On the bright side, if you are a financial player, maybe there’s an opportunity in the liquidation. I recall the hours I spent manually updating the controlled terms lists that Convera used to know that a “truck” was a “pick up” and a “semi”. Good consulting money there once upon a time.
Stephen Arnold, November 18, 2009
I wish to disclose to the Department of Defense that I was not paid by any firm, including Allen & Co., to write this short item. I would wager a dime that someone in the DoD remembers Convera’s search system. Is that a fond remembrance? Probably.
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