Micro Technology Suspends Work on Lance Software Technology

Micro Technology Inc. said Thursday that it will freeze further development of its Lance network management software business, focusing instead on its network and storage products businesses.

Micro Technology formed the software business two years ago as part of a diversification plan. It set up a separate division, Lexcel, in Fullerton that once employed 50 people. Company officials had said then that they eventually expected to hire as many as 50 more people there.

Tom Raimondi, vice president of marketing, said that about 30 people have been transferred to other parts of Micro Technology from the Fullerton operation. An unspecified number have been laid off, he said, and others have left voluntarily.

“We have to look at the amount of dollars spent on one technology and its return on investment,” Raimondi said of the decision to put the project on hold. “The biggest return we’re getting,” he said, is in the market for computers known as servers, which act as the computing engines of computer networks.

Micro Technology, which has annual revenue of about $125 million, said some employees will continue to serve customers who have current versions of its Lance product, although the company will no longer issue periodic updates.