Infodetics Continues to Service Clients

Infodetics Corp., an Anaheim data storage maker that filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this week after laying off about 100 employees, is continuing to service its maintenance and repair clients with a core of about 40 employees, the company’s president said Wednesday.

Privately held Infodetics, formed as a spinoff of Odetics Inc. in 1981, ceased its manufacturing operations last week and on Monday filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

Burton Tregub, the company’s president, said the decision to petition for protection from its creditors came after one or more of Infodetics’ current investors objected to the terms of a new financing plan that would have brought in additional investors.

He said the company had obtained commitments from new investors to finance development of a new product.

In its Chapter 11 filing, the company listed $6.9 million in assets and $6.56 million in liabilities, including a total of $4.2 million owed to Bank of America, Infodetics’ largest secured creditor.

Major unsecured creditors, according to documents filed in federal Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana, include Brentwood Associates, a Los Angeles venture capital firm owed $500,000; the General Electric Pension Trust, owed $320,462; the Hillman Co., a Pittsburgh investor owed $225,000, Data General Corp., owed $155,326, and Odetics, the Anaheim robotics and high-tech electronic firm and Infodetics’ former parent, which is owed $150,216. Odetics also is the company’s single largest common share holder, with about 60,000 of the 1.1 million shares of common stock.

Tregub said the unsecured creditors largely are investors who have financed Infodetics since its inception six years ago. Many hold large blocks of preferred stock.

Infodetics’ major customer was the Defense Department and the year-end slowdown in military spending hurt the company’s cash flow and exacerbated other financial problems, Tregub said.