Professional services company SBI has acquired Oregon-based Emerald Solutions, which has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Emerald voluntarily filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Oregon. The move will allow the company "to continue to deliver services to its clients without interruption until court approval of this transaction is received," Salt Lake-based SBI said.
Emerald, a Web integration company, laid off an unconfirmed number of employees last week, according to the Business Journal in Portland. Emerald's chief executive officer, Martin Wright, told the journal that Emerald still has "a little over 200 employees" at locations in the Northeast, the Southern United States and in the West. In November last year, Emerald had a reported 750 employees, but the figure dropped to a reported 350 in June.
The Business Journal said sources familiar with the company said that 75 workers were laid off.
SBI now has 500 employees. In late June it received court approval to acquire about 300 employees and 200 client relationships from the defunct company marchFIRST. At that time, it acquired marchFIRST's New York office, after earlier acquiring offices in Portland, San Francisco and Denver.
SBI's chief executive officer, Ned Stringham, said the company's downtown Portland location and Emerald's office would be combined, the newspaper reported.
Emerald had sales of $34.7 million and a net loss of $5.4 million in 1999. Revenue in 2000 totaled $81 million, but Wright declined to comment on whether the company lost money then, The Business Journal said.