Sun, SolNet argue debts

Sun Microsystems will seek to have former New Zealand agent SolNet Holdings liquidated at a hearing in the Wellington High Court this month.

Sun Microsystems will seek to have former New Zealand agent SolNet Holdings liquidated at a hearing in the Wellington High Court this month.

However, SolNet Holdings has already effectively been wound up, with most of its assets having been sold to SolNet Solutions.

“We’re in the process of tidying up SolNet Holdings’ assets,” says SolNet Solutions managing director Mark Botherway, adding that the companies are separate entities.

He describes Sun’s action as nothing special, and as of last week hadn’t yet yet “bothered to focus” on a legal response.

A court meeting between Sun and SolNet has been on the cards since November, when Sun abruptly ended SolNet’s 10-year-old supplier agreement, citing financial reasons.

Speculation that SolNet owes as much as $10 million to its former supplier has been dismissed by company chairman Murray McNae, who maintains that any debt is of a level typical between a supplier and customer.

Following loss of the Sun agency, SolNet Solutions, a company registered in 1994, was kicked into life as a services and software development business. It employs about 100 of SolNet Holdings’ 125 staff.

Many of those involved in Sun hardware sales who didn’t transfer to SolNet Solutions have found jobs at Sun, which is creating a direct sales force, and newly active Sun resellers Computerland and Eagle Technologies.

Sun New Zealand manager Rod Severn, last week fresh back from holiday, said he “didn’t give a rat’s” about the court action, adding that it was in the hands of Sun Australia and US lawyers.

Severn has hired six former SolNet staff, and is in the throes of hiring several more people, including a partner manager, to complete his sales team.

Sun's winding up application will be heard on February 23.

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