Despite struggles, Copan not closing, company officials say

By Alicia Wallace

LONGMONT — Despite reported layoffs and rumors that it is ceasing operations, Longmont-based Copan Systems is not shutting down, one of its executives recently told an online technology publication.

According to sources who contacted the Camera and those quoted anonymously by the Register online publication, the data storage firm has shed the majority of its staff. The Register, citing anonymous sources, said the once 60-person-strong company — which specializes in disk-based technologies and uses an architecture called massive arrays of idle disks, or MAID, enterprise data storage products — now has only six employees.

Copan Systems officials have not returned calls or e-mails from the Camera seeking comment.

A company that makes a mass layoff sometimes is required to notify its state department of labor about such actions. However, in general, the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act covers companies that have 100 or more employees. There are some exceptions to that 100-employee figure, notably if a company closes one of its sites, said Bill Thoennes, a spokesman for the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.
Colorado’s labor department has not received a WARN Act notice from Copan, Thoennes said.

Jim Flyzik, a strategic consultant who was brought in as a special advisor to Copan in March, also could not be reached for comment.

On a recent weekday, the company’s office at 1900 Pike Road in Longmont was quiet and seemingly empty. In the main lobby was a sign directing deliveries to the back door, a phone with dial-by name instructions and a small pile of mail sitting atop a vacant receptionist’s desk.

A woman who answered the line for the president’s office said executives were not available for comment.

David Dew, vice president of engineering, reportedly told the Register that Copan is shifting to an indirect sales model and to a “major sales strategy transition.”

“While it is not a big secret that we have put a number of employees on furlough as a cost-cutting measure, we have not shut down as some reports have stated,” Dew was quoted as saying to the Register.

Copan relocated to Longmont from the Austin Ventures incubator in Texas in 2002. The company quietly worked on its technologies during the subsequent years and gained millions in venture capital investments to further its growth.

This year, Copan raised $18.5 million in February and then reportedly raised $3 million of a $6.2 million funding round in August, according to TechRockies, which cited a filing from the company. The latter funding round came just weeks after Mark Ward, Copan’s chief executive officer left the company.