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Oniva shuts down with loss of 65 jobs
Wednesday, April 11 2001
by Rory Kelleher


Oniva Group, the Irish e-business consultancy, ceased trading on Wednesday after
it failed to secure around IEP1 million in rescue funding.



Staff, who have been paid up to last Friday, were told at a 4pm meeting that the
company would cease trading immediately and that a liquidator will be appointed.
The company employed 65 in Ireland, including CTO Daragh Scaife and directors
Wael Wansa and Niall Kiernan.



Oniva was founded in 1992 and was recognised as one of Ireland's top Internet
services companies. The Irish company had merged with German-based E-trend Media
Consulting in May of 2000 with a view to competing for larger and more
international projects in the European Internet market. 



But Scaife said that, as part of its recent fundraising drive, the company was
purchased back in an exchange done at the end of March, after which Oniva was 100
percent owned by staff and management in Ireland. 



The company had been seeking less than IEP1 million in funding and learned early
this week that the funds would not be secured. The company said that it had been
in negotiations involving a number of potential investors since January, but that
in the last 48 hours, one of the investors has withdrawn from negotiations.



"What it forbodes is that this is not the end of the problems for tech sector
in Ireland," he said. "People are talking about the possibility of there being
a fast rebound, but to be honest I don't think it's going to happen."



The last quarter has been marked by a series of closures and deep layoffs among
Irish IT firms, including the collapse of Ebeon, Nua and Viasec and job
reductions at Entropy, Eircom, Iona and Educational Multimedia Corporation, among
others.  



Oniva's closure marks the end of a severe and rapid decline for the company. In
January the company closed its Belfast office with the loss of 12 jobs and
eliminated 19 jobs in Dublin, and in March it closed its UK office. The company
said the restructuring was in line with an expected slowdown in technology
markets worldwide.



At that point, the company also suspended plans to set up an office in China, and
it asked its international offices to review their operations.



In September of 2000 the company had announced plans to expand into the Chinese
market through a strategic alliance with Chinese firm Sparkice.com.



The company's revenues increased from EUR1 million in 1997 to EUR11 million in
2000.



Clients of the group included Guinness, Nestle, Nissan, Knorr, Vichy,
AOL/Compuserve, Dresdner Bank and Bertelsmann.