Tut shifts headquarters to Oregon

The chief executive officer of Tut Systems, Sal D’Auria, has moved his office to Lake Oswego, Ore., which in turn moves the headquarters of the telecommunications company out of Pleasanton, CA.

Other than a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was made official last week, there was little public announcement made about the change. D’Auria’s family moved from Lafayette to Oregon as well.

By David Morrill, BUSINESS WRITER

http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~10834~1946844,00.html

It is no coincidence that the move puts the headquarters just 10 minutes away from Tektronix Inc., which sold Tut Systems VideoTele.com in 2002. Tektronix is one of Tut’s primary revenue sources and could key future growth for Tut.

The company will still have its Pleasanton office, but currently less than 20 employees work there. The majority of the company’s employees now work in Oregon.

"It made sense to put the center of our day-to-day operations where our core team and the bulk of the employees are," said Jeff Schline, a spokesman for Tut Systems.

Prior to 2002, Tut’s primary business was to sell products that allowed multi-unit buildings to provide Internet access. Growth in this service will still be run out of Pleasanton.

With VideoTele.com, the company now offers video services such as digital television to its customers.

Also last week, the company announced that it and a certain shareholder plan to offer 5 million shares of common stock in a public offering.

On Monday, shares of Tut rose 10 cents to close at $6.24. It’s 52-week range is from $1.17 to $7.50.

In 2000, the company saw its stock price reach $115 per share, but it fell to less than $1 in 2001. The primary reason for the drop-off was a major recall of its primary product.

Last January, Tut’s insurance company paid $10 million to settle a lawsuit that alleged the company reported fraudulent financial results for the second and third quarters of 2000.