Owner: Wynyard a victim of financial crisis
The new foreign owner of Wynyard’s crime-fighting software has said the Auckland-based technology company went broke because of a ’’financial crisis’’ in New Zealand.
Security software firm Wynyard Group is now in the final stages of being liquidated after its remaining crime-fighting software was purchased by Luxembourgbased technology fund Boundary Holding.
It has bought Wynyard’s brand and remaining software and intellectual property for an undisclosed sum. Wynyard went broke in October and the other major part of the company, which developed and sold business-risk management software, was sold in two parts to Australia’s Telstra and Torontobased company Resolver.
Boundary Holding plans to revive Wynyard’s website, which will be relaunched in three days.
A notice on the unfinished website said Wynyard went into voluntary administration in October ‘‘largely due to the financial crisis in the country’’, and that its new management promised to uphold its cultural identity.
Wynyard would be headquartered in Switzerland with research and development centres in India and New Zealand, the notice said.
Chief executive of Boundary Holding Rajat Khare said in the notice that Wynyard’s failure was not reflective of its potential.
KordaMentha partner Neale Jackson said all of Wynyard’s New Zealand based employees had been paid their preferred entitlements over the past month.
Wynyard’s investigation software has been used internationally by more than 50 agencies, including the Australian Federal Police, specialist operations in Britain and multination crime task forces in Asia.
In 2015 the Reserve Bank invested in the software to identify threats and reduce the risk of financial crime. It was also used by border protection agencies.
Police have said software originally supplied to them by Wynyard needs to be upgraded to meet their needs.
The website notice said Wynyard’s customers would be supported to maintain continuity. A new team of engineers would upgrade existing products and develop new ones, the notice said.