Open Password – Monday March 4, 2022
#1037
WTI-Frankfurt digital – WTI AG (Switzerland) – Insolvency – Data crash – Licensee – Mass inadequacy – Insolvency administrator – Employee companies – Data transfer – Business purposes – Willi Bredemeier – Wikipedia – Mass poverty – Peter Halstenbach – Jan Halstenbach – FIZ Technology – Specialist information programs – Technology and management Information – Industry practices – Commercial Register Office of the Canton of Zurich – OnyX software – WTI employees – Hanover Technical Information Library – FIZ Karlsruhe – GBI-Genios – Terminations due to cessation of business – Werner Müller – Miguel Grosser – WTI customer base – BLISS
PATINFO – PING Meeting – Workshops – Stock Market Media – Dow Jones – Wall Street Journal – Barron’s – Market Watch – LexisNexis CounselLink – Wikipedia Library – Wikimedia Foundation – Wiley Online Library – GroupM Premium Marketplace – SAS Skill Builders for Students – EBSCO Essentials – Google – Privacy Sandbox on Android – IDG Communications – Foundry – National Institutes of Health – Share Data Publicly – Zoom Info – Tracker – Outsell
- Title
WTI-Frankfurt digital and WTI AG (Switzerland):
Process that led to insolvency was prepared over a long period of time? – If there was a data crash, why wasn’t the data recovered from the licensees’ servers? – The Swiss WTI AG has all the databases that belonged to
the WTI-Frankfurt digitally – Why inadequacy of assets when the insolvency administrator has purchase offers from the licensees? – By Willi Bredemeier
PATINFO: User group meeting and workshop
I II. Stock market media: Wall Street Journal and Barron’s in German
- International news
WTI-Frankfurt digital and WTI AG (Switzerland)
Process that led to insolvency
was prepared over a long period of time?
If there was a data crash,
why wasn’t the data recovered from the licensees’ servers?
The Swiss WTI AG has all the databases that belong to the WTI-Frankfurt digitally
Why mass insufficiency
when the insolvency administrator has purchase offers from the licensees?
See also: Filed for bankruptcy – got on its own feet as an employee-owned company, then sold to the wrong people, in: Open Password, October 15, 2021, #986
Who owns the WTI databases if WTI has gone out of business? – Were the databases transferred from WTI Frankfurt to WTI Switzerland ?, in: Open Password, October 20, 2021, #988
The data from the Frankfurt WTI transferred to the Swiss WTI AG? – The business purpose of WTI AG was already aligned with the business model of Frankfurt-based WTI AG in June, in: Open Password, October 22, 2021, #991
By Willi Bredemeier
Willi Bredemeier
Open Password has repeatedly reported on the rise and fall of WTI-Frankfurt digitally and drawn attention to the irritating questions it raises. On December 17th, the Frankfurt insolvency administrator for WTI-Frankfurt digitally declared “mass inadequacy”. Open Password defines “mass insufficiency” in such a way that WTI has no significant assets and does not expect any significant income to be able to satisfy creditors’ claims, which means that insolvency proceedings cannot be opened or continued due to a lack of assets. According to Wikipedia, the “insolvency administrator of insolvency proceedings must always ensure that the insolvency estate, i.e. the remaining assets in the insolvency proceedings, is sufficient to cover the costs of the insolvency proceedings… as well as other mass liabilities. If the assets are not even sufficient to cover the costs of the insolvency proceedings (mass poverty) , the insolvency proceedings will be discontinued.”
Is this the end of the story now? No. Confusing questions remain and new ones have been added. On the other hand, one or two questions have now been answered and a clearer picture emerges about the actions of the interim owners of WTI-Frankfurt digital, Peter and Jan Halstenbach .
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As an employee-owned company, it became financially viable, then sold to the wrong people.
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The WTI emerged from FIZ Technik, which was founded in 1979 by the Federal Ministry of Economics as part of the German specialist information programs to familiarize medium-sized industrial companies with the new online technology and to provide them with technical and management information. The institution fell into an existential crisis when the BMWi stopped funding it. Open Password on October 15, 2021:
“Against all odds, FIZ Technik was continued in 2011 in the form of an employee cooperative and became financially independent. With its economic successes, WTI gained double the popularity in the information industry, after the company’s expertise had already been undisputed.”
In 2019, WTI was converted into a GmbH to make it easier to obtain the funds needed for investments. After a lot of turbulence, the WTI fell into the hands of Jan Halstenbach and his father Peter (or Hans-Peter), both of whom were management consultants, among other things. The industry greeted this change with some skepticism, as the Halstenbachs had no knowledge of the industry, were almost the first to fire WTI’s previous management and, contrary to industry practice, were quick to threaten legal action.
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Process that led to insolvency was prepared over a long period of time?
_____________________________________________________
At the end of 2021, the managing director Jan Halstenbach filed for bankruptcy at the Frankfurt district court for WTI-Frankfurt digital and dismissed all employees due to going out of business. The question that arose from the beginning was whether the process that ultimately resulted in WTI going out of business had been prepared by the Halstenbachs for a long time and whether the Halstenbachs were actually able to use the WTI-Frankfurt they had taken over digitally wanted to achieve economic success. This question can now be answered with greater certainty.
On July 7, 2021, the Commercial Register Office of the Canton of Zurich registered important changes for the Swiss company Theos Software AG. The company received a chairman named Hans-Peter Halstenbach . Halstenbach had not previously appeared on the board of directors, so the conclusion is that Hans-Peter Halstenbach had taken over this company. At the same time, the company’s name was changed to WTI. Furthermore, the business purpose of the company, which had previously been active in the “sales and maintenance of computer operating systems and user programs,” was changed so that the Swiss WTI AG resembled a clone of the German WTI-Frankfurt digital. Specifically, the changes to the business purpose state:
“The purpose of the company is to operate and maintain databases to obtain information. The sales of the information obtained. Promotion, support and advice on information gathering, including information for members and third parties as well as public relations. The trading of information. The purchase and distribution of systems for the production of technical specialist information. The development and distribution of software for the search, analysis and evaluation of digital information and user programs.”
Why was Theos Software AG renamed WTI? Peter Halstenbach has now answered this question himself. The now managing director of the Swiss WTI AG was surprisingly open at the end of 2021 in a customer letter that was available to Open Password:
“ Since WTI GmbH will cease business operations for economic reasons, its business operations will be carried out by THEOS Software AG in close cooperation with WTI AG in Switzerland – which was also founded in order to be able to use the name that is well established on the market – continued.”
The same letter further states:
“A long time ago, WTI GmbH in Germany and THEOS Software AG – licensee of the OnyX software for Switzerland and Austria since 1985 – had concluded contractual agreements on cooperation to avoid legal disputes and the development of a production system.
A central point of the contractual agreements is that in the event that one of the two companies no longer continues, the other company has the right to continue the business alone .”
Halstenbachs’ intention to drive WTI-Frankfurt digitally into insolvency and to continue their business in the Swiss WTI AG? Important prerequisites for such a development were in place since the contracts between THEOS Software AG and the Frankfurt-based WTI as well as the change in the commercial register office of the Canton of Zurich on July 7, 2021.
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If there was a data crash, why wasn’t the data recovered from the licensees’ servers?
_____________________________________________________
How did Frankfurt-based WTI GmbH become insolvent, even though it was a profitable company? WTI managing director Jan Halstenbach claimed that all data was lost in a crash. Open Password already asked on October 22nd:
“To what extent is this representation confirmed by the employees who were terminated due to cessation of business and is the lost data really irretrievable?”
Let’s assume there was a crash. Even then, the WTI databases would not have been lost, because they were still available to the WTI licensees Technical Information Library Hannover, FIZ Karlsruhe and GBI-Genios on their servers. To be more precise: The WTI databases were available to the licensees with different content. These databases would have had to be merged in order to be able to offer the WTI databases completely again.
This raises further questions about the WTI affair: Why wasn’t Jan Halstenbach asked why he hadn’t retrieved his own data from his licensees? And if it had only taken a few telephone conversations to digitally restore the old data situation for WTI-Frankfurt (apart from the technical implementation), the termination of the WTI employees was actually legal, whether there had been a data crash or not ?
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According to its own information, the Swiss WTI AG has all the databases that digitally belong to the WTI-Frankfurt . Where is the data crash?
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From the outset, the industry suspected that the data crash did not occur at WTI-Frankfurt digital. Rather, Jan Halstenbach may have arranged for the data to be transferred to the Swiss WTI AG in order to digitally take over and continue the business of WTI-Frankfurt through the Swiss WTI AG. The managing director of WTI AG, Peter Halstenbach , also answered this question. In a customer letter available to Open Password, he wrote, among other things:
“Continuation of WTI databases …
Since WTI GmbH will cease business operations for economic reasons, its business operations will be carried out by THEOS Software in close cooperation with WTI AG, based in Switzerland – which was also founded in order to be able to use the name that is well established on the market – continued.
The subject of the contract between your company and WTI AG is the ability to access all WTI databases via new, modern software. WTI AG guarantees your company flawless data delivery.
The billing can be changed to a monthly basis at your request and for your security.
Kind regards
WTI AG
Peter Halstenbach
Managing Director”.
The available evidence therefore suggests that the process that ultimately led to the insolvency of WTI-Frankfurt digital was prepared over a long period of time. According to the managing director of WTI AG, Peter Halstenbach , “all WTI databases” are now on the server of the Swiss WTI AG and are offered digitally to old WTI-Frankfurt customers . Open Password can prove that money from old WTI-Frankfurt customers has already flowed digitally to Switzerland for the use of the WTI databases.
This raises further questions: Is the Swiss WTI AG allowed to distribute the WTI databases at all, since they took possession of them to the detriment of the rightful owner, the WTI-Frankfurt digital entrusted to them? And are the connections presented criminally relevant?
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Why “mass inadequacy” when the insolvency administrator
has purchase offers from the licensees?_______________________________________________________
The “mass inadequacy” digitally reported by Frankfurt lawyer Miguel Grosser for WTI-Frankfurt is not readily apparent to the industry, as WTI-Frankfurt digital could demand the return of its databases from the Swiss WTI AG. According to the Halstenbachs , the WTI databases have a solid customer base and see and use opportunities to run a profitable business with the WTI databases. There is also great interest among the existing licensees in continuing to license the WTI databases and would be at least partially willing to continue the WTI databases under their own management. Grosser was offered a considerable sum to purchase the WTI databases. That doesn’t sound like “mass inadequacy.”
Open Password had already written on October 20, 2021:
“The managing director of GBI-Genios, Werner Müller, has declared his fundamental willingness to merge the WTI databases and continue operations. He also wants to hold discussions with former WTI employees.”
Müller is now trying out the business literature database BLIISS, the former flagship of the GBI. with former employees of WTI-Frankfurt to keep it up to date. GBI later merged with GENIOS economic databases and is now called GBI-Genios. GBI-Genios had digitally outsourced the maintenance of BLISS to WTI-Frankfurt .
This means that further open questions now arise for the insolvency administrator. Therefore, Open Password wrote the following letter to the insolvency administrator Miguel Grosser on February 20th :
“Dear Mr. Grosser ,
My name is Willi Bredemeier. I am the editor of Open Password. You can find all issues published since 2016 at www.password-online.de
, WTI-Frankfurt digital is also part of my core reporting. For example, I reported on the latest developments at WTI on October 20 and October 22, 2021.
Another article on the current situation of the WTI is in preparation. At the moment, two connections in particular are unclear to me. This may be partly because I am inexperienced in legal matters.
I would be very grateful if you answered the following questions:
1) You registered for the WTI “mass inadequacy” at the Frankfurt District Court on December 17th. I understand “mass inadequacy” to mean that the WTI has no significant assets and does not expect any significant income to be able to satisfy creditors’ claims. How can this be if the data that was allegedly lost in a data crash is licensed to several of WTI’s major customers and they would be willing to purchase the databases?
2) Are you informed that Peter Halstenbach is making offers to use the WTI (Frankfurt) databases on behalf of WTI AG from Switzerland? According to the company’s own information, all WTI-Frankfurt databases are available there digitally. Isn’t this criminally relevant and wouldn’t you have to file a complaint?
I would be happy if you could reply to me by February 28th.
Thank you in advance for your efforts
and kind regards
Dr. Willi Bredemeier
Editor of Open Password”
There was no response to this letter by March 3 (4 p.m.).
PATINFO
User group meeting and workshops
For the conference programs on June 23rd and 24th, see Open Password, March 2nd, 2022
June 22 – 24, 2022, 44th Colloquium of the TU Ilmenau on patent information and intellectual property protection – internationalization and digitalization of the IP world
PING meeting
June 22nd, 6:15 p.m. Meeting of the German-speaking patent information user group
Congress Centrum Suhl
Workshops
All workshops take place at the Michel Hotel Suhl, Platz der deutsche Unität 2.
2:00 p.m. – 2:45 p.m
ABP PATENT NETWORK, How to Meet with Patent Publications –
Meetings of monitoring results
Clarivate , Unlocking the potential of IP Charting for IP Intelligence : .
Right data at the right time within the IP ecosystem
IP7 Technologies, Innovative concepts for patent research and
patent monitoring in the IP7 Compass
Minesoft , Minesoft Updates: PatBase and other products
3:00 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.
infoapps , CleverPat , the new, innovative and simple
overall solution for third-party patent literature research, analysis and workflow IP – R&D.
ip-search / IGE , news from ip-search
DPMA , DEPATISnet and DPMAregister – innovations, tips and tricks
GSI Office Management , The path to digitalization of
IP management systems
4:00 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.
bck , POLYMARK bck GmbH and FoveaIP – Set up brand
design monitoring – worldwide coverage
Continux , Digital transformation in the IP world
Queste l , Internal workflow – AI-supported – for efficient
competition monitoring
Gridlogics , coverage, completeness , correctness –
quality of the data sets of commercial patent databases
5:00 p.m. – 5:45 p.m.
genese.de , digitization of IP services in the patent department
(Genese/ Pavis )
Kramer & Hofmann, XPAT as a comprehensive tool for IP work,
now with AI connection and semantic search option
interface projects : Semantic research with INTERGATOR
Patent Search
FIZ Karlsruhe : Competitive Intelligence in STNext ® – new
methods
Stock market media
Wall Street Journal and Barron’s in German
(Störsenmedien) Börsenmedien AG is entering into a two-year partnership with Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and MarketWatch . Through the collaboration, readers of Börsenmedien AG publications can now also read Dow Jones articles in German.
Börsenmedien AG, Germany’s leading media company for financial information, will in future provide its readers with a selection of articles from the Wall Street Journal as well as Barron’s and MarketWatch in German. The editorial content is part of the recently agreed cooperation with Dow Jones International, the British subsidiary of the traditional American publisher Dow Jones & Company. The original English-language articles are translated by Börsenmedien AG and then published in various publications by the publisher. For this purpose, Börsenmedien AG has increased its editorial team and, among other things, hired three translators.
International News
LexisNexis Adds New Capabilities and Enhancements to CounselLink , the Enterprise Legal Management Platform
LexisNexis CounselLink announced the release of version 22.1 of its enterprise legal management solution . This release delivers significant new features.features across the entire legal management process to help legal departments streamline work and matter management , better predict costs and demonstrate theirs value to theirs business .
Wiley and Wikipedia: Powering Discovery Together
Wiley is excited to announce a new one partnership with the Wikipedia Library, a project of the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation , which will connect Wikipedia editors with full -text access to Wiley Online Library content to drive better citations and more accurate content on Wikipedia.
GroupM Introduces Premium Marketplace to Increase Transparency and Efficiency and Power a New Era of Responsible Investment
GroupM announced the introduction of GroupM Premium Marketplace. GroupM Premium Marketplace will provide clients with direct and advantaged access to high-quality publisher inventory underpinned by new standards for performance measurement .
New SAS Program for Students Charts Path from Analytics Skills to Dream Job
SAS has launched a new one program for higher education students to learn analytics skills and earn certifications sought by employers . SAS skills Builders for Students is a free , global, 24/7 virtual learning portal that offers access to SAS software , e-learning and certifications , as well as career advice and ways to connect with employers .
EBSCO Introduces EBSCO Essentials, a New Starting Point for Users to Search EBSCO Content and Connect to Their Libraries
EBSCO Information Services has created a way for any user.user to search EBSCO content even before they authenticate to theirs libraries and institutions . EBSCO Essentials is one way to reach more users –– users who typically begin theirs research on the open web.
Google: Introduction the Privacy Sandbox on Android
Google is announce a multi- year initiative to build the Privacy Sandbox on Android, with the goal of introducing new , more private advertising solutions . Specifically , theses solutions wants limits sharing of users data with third parties and operations without cross -app identifiers , including advertising ID.
After Nearly 60 Years , IDG Communications Becomes Foundry
IDG Communications, the provider of technology media , data , and marketing services , announced that the company has rebranded as Foundry. The announcement marks the company’s transformation from legacy media network to integrated marketing technology and data providers .
NIH Issues a Seismic Mandate: Share Data Publicly
In January 2023, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) will begin requiring most of the 300,000 researchers and 2,500 institutions it funds annually to include a data management plan in their grant applications — and to eventually make theirs data publicly available .
ZoomInfo Launches Tracker to Help Companies Retain Visibility Into Key Buyers Who Switch to New Accounts
ZoomInfo announced the debut of Tracker, a new feature in ZoomInfo’s SalesOS platform.platform that allows sellers to maintain valuable relationships by tracking their loyal users when they change jobs . The feature notifies sellers when decision makers enter and exit theirs accounts so they can be proactive in their engagement .
Source: Outsell
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