Another Failed Compression Promise: NearZero
Posted by Sachin Garg on 14th June 2007 | Permanent Link
Update 11th Nov 2007: Judge orders liquidation.
A New Zealand based company, NearZero has nothing to show after more than 6 years and $5 million of investor money. It promised a breakthrough compression technology but now liquidators are called in.
Compression really seems to be a popular trap investors fall into. There have been a bit too many such companies which have promised to compress the moon and the sun but managed to compress nothing more than investor’s hard earned cash. And it doesn’t comes as too much of a surprise. They make huge promises, which are infact lucrative, but only if it was more probable to fulfill them. But then not everyone is as lucky as me to understand the technology behind compression ;-)
There have been many examples over the years. While some like zeosync started with huge claims and were just declared fraud soon (they promised a bit too much), there are others which are still chugging along. Like Euclid Discoveries, which is working on a ‘breakthrough’ video compression technology (since a decade I guess) but haven’t delivered anything, yet. Millions of dollars get poured with hope of recovery getting less with each passing day.
NearZero’s case is very similar:
NearZero’s share offer was apparently made to fund further development of software capable of compressing high-volume data so it can be sent over the Internet. The technology was tested in 2001 but had not been seen for several years by any external party.
While jury is still out on some companies like Euclid, others like Zeosync and NearZero are grim reminders of age old theory which says, invest in what you understand, not what sounds good.
Note: Not all compression companies are bad, but this “not seen by any external party” is the common warning sign in each case.
Anyway, the investors who have their money in, are still hopeful that things might not be as bad as they look. Check out the comments to this post on Euclid Discoveries, more than a year has passed since this thread started and absolutely nothing has changed. Neither have they delivered anything, nor have the investors stopped believing.