SiliconBeat

Aviza Technology, the Scotts Valley supplier of condsemiconductor manufacturing equipment, filed for bankruptcy protection this morning on behalf of itself and its subsidiaries Aviza and Trikon Technologies, according to a company release.

Last month the company’s lenders notified Aviza that it was in default on its credit agreements, demanding that Read the rest of this entry »

Vermillion, the biotech company formerly known as Ciphergen Biosystems, filed for bankruptcy protection Monday after losing four of the directors on its board the week before, when it also received the the asked-for resignations of its CEO, interim chief financial officer, and vice president in charge of business development.

None of the director resignations were “the result of any disagreement” with the company, and the senior executives quit “for the sole reason of conserving Company resources”, according to the filing announcing the news.

We first wrote about Vermillion in September 2007 when we noted that Phronesis Partners, an Ohio-based hedge fund that takes its name from a Greek term used by the philosopher Aristotle to denote “practical wisdom,” or “prudence,” disclosed that it was Vermillion’s largest shareholder then the largest owner of of a company that has yet to show a profit and has accumulated losses to the tune of $218 million since its founding in 1993.

A day after voting themselves $20,000 in cash for “past services” and a day before their company filed for bankruptcy, three directors of Tvia, a fabless — and profitless — Santa Clara company focused on chips for digital displays, called it quits Tuesday, according to a filing Thursday.

Among those resigning was Read the rest of this entry »

Ampex, the long-time, once-venerable Silicon Valley company that pioneered recording media, got the OK Friday from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on the its reorganization plan. Not a surprise, of course, as those creditors “entitled” to vote on the plan approved it “overwhelmingly” back in July, according to the press release Ampex put out this morning. ) No word on what those creditors who weren’t entitled to vote think about the plan. Or the stockholders of the pre-bankruptcy Ampex, who are out of luck.

The company also reported receiving $5 million in new funding from Read the rest of this entry »

Focus Enhancement’s board of directors did a mass exodus Monday after they voted to approve filing for bankruptcy. Six of the board’s seven directors resigned leaving the company’s chief executive, Brett Moyer, as the sole board member, according to a filing the company  made with the SEC Wednesday.

That would mean that Carl Berg, the Silicon Valley venture investor and commercial real estate mogul who personally guaranteed Read the rest of this entry »