Software startup TeleSym calls it quits

Bellevue-based TeleSym is closing its doors.

The 5-year-old software startup, which raised $18 million from Intel, Thomas Weisel Venture Partners, Siemens and others, developed technologies that allowed people to make phone calls over wireless Internet networks from mobile devices.

About 40 people were laid off yesterday, with all of the employees receiving some form of severance package, TeleSym Chief Executive Bob Hart said. The company, which won top honors at the prestigious Demo and Internet Telephony conferences in 2002, could return some of the capital to investors if it is able to sell the intellectual property assets, Hart said.

"We purposely did not try to run this into the wall," said Hart, who joined the company last summer. "We did not want to leave creditors hanging. We wanted to shut down in a professional fashion."

By JOHN COOK
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

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