The lights are off, the bankruptcy filed
August 17, 2005
The halls of the Interex offices on Borregas Avenue in Sunnyvale were empty but not yet bare in the week of August 15, after the user group finally filed its Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
The former HP users group Interex has filed its petition for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in US district court. The documents, filed with the clerk's office with a date of Aug. 11, call for a Sept. 6 hearing before the US District Court for Northern California, starting at 10:30 AM. All of the user group's creditors are being sent a notice of the bankruptcy, according to court officials.
Those creditors could include several hotels in San Francisco that had held blocks of rooms for the show and were expecting room sales related to the conference that was set to start this week. According to a story in Trade Show Executive, the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau expected 5,000 visitors and 10,000 room nights as a result of the conference. The SF CVB officials in the TSE article said the impact of the show would have been $7.5 million.
The sharing is over for Interex after its Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Creditors will line up after the Labor Day weekend to try to recover their losses to the 31-year-old group.
The headquarters facility at the Interex offices on 1192 Borregas Ave. was shut down tight yesterday when I stopped by, parking my rental car in a deserted company lot. A couple of FedEx door tags for unclaimed packages fluttered on the locked front and back doors. Peering inside, I could see office equipment, filing cabinets and documents still inside the building, which still carries the group's motto on signs that say "Shared Knowledge. Shared Power." Those documents inside could include materials still important to the many volunteers who served the group. Members of the former user group are hopeful that the Interex archives of the HP computer history — the group has tracked HP 3000 activities since 1974 — can be rescued from the shuttered business.
We'll have an update later on, after we can examine the list of creditors.