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The tightening market for capital kept rippling across the technology industry last week, sending a temporary scare through one Twin Cities Internet company and prodding another into a merger deal.
A brush with a financing crunch hit Internet software company Cyrus Intersoft Inc. in recent weeks, prompting a warning to employees that the Minneapolis firm might miss payroll. Online retailer Netdirect Corp. International, meanwhile,
agreed to be acquired in a reverse merger with privately held New Jersey-based e-tailer BuyltNow.com Inc., as officials realized long-term growth prospects were slim.
Cyrus officials assert that the company remains well capitalized, but that a restructuring and general "belt-tightening" would be required in an industry where, suddenly, venture investors fear to tread.
Outside observers agreed that any...