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Crossroads preps pesky product portfolio selloff

All about patent litigation now?

Crossroads has finally abandoned any pretence of being an archival systems products company any more and has signalled its product portfolio is up for sale.

Its latest quarterly results showed what many would call a derisory products business, with revenues of just $1.8m and a loss of $538,000, the latest in a string of quarters showing declining revenues and constant loss-making.

In an announcement its board of directors has "authorized management to explore strategic alternatives related to Crossroads' product business, including the possibility of partnerships or an outright sale of that business."

It is now clearer that Lone Star Value Management, the activist investor with effective control of the company, sees it as a patent mine and not a product shop.

CEO Rick Coleman said: "Crossroads' intellectual property represents nearly two decades of work by our skilled and dedicated employees, and our shareholders deserve to be compensated for the use of our technology. We remain committed to making that happen and resolute in our belief that we will prevail."

Good on you, Rick. Pity about Crossroads' StrongBox product-buying customers who had trusted the company's products with their archive data. Ditto Crossroads' product staff, who must now be feeling unloved, to say the least.

The patent gamble involves suing alleged users of Crossroads' IP and getting them to cough up. So far it's having its fair share of struggles, with Crossroads saying it intends to appeal four adverse inter partes review decisions from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, which were issued on Friday, January 29, 2016.

The lawyers are going to get rich, for sure. ®

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