Cash rich, customer poor

As in biology, the evolution of a market does not always take anticipated turns. Many bioinformatics companies were started with the notion that they could come up with systemwide and/or standardized solutions for a universe of customers. But many potential clients have concluded that they need totally customized solutions for very specific needs - with many concluding that they should build their systems in-house.

Thus, only a year after raising more than $122 million in an IPO valued at $425.6 million, Genomica Corp. last week said that demand for its enterprise research software has been lacking and reduced operations to cashflow-neutral levels while it regroups to find a solution to its dilemma...