Red Herring: A Cautionary Tale

Red Herring has been escorted out of its offices by San Mateo County Sherriff's deputies. I have little sympathy for the plight of Red Herring CEO Alex Vieux, long known for his reluctance to handle day to day business affairs. The writers at the formerly storied magazine are a different matter - no one deserves to be blindsided like that from a seemingly trusted employer.

Vieux has been talking a good game for quite some time now, even as he spent his time behind the scenes running from the repo man and refusing to pay even the simplest of bills, like the electric bill. He even went so far as to give a recent talk on getting rid of the dead weight in a company, missing the irony that he was the biggest dead weight of them all.

Even as Sherriff's deputies entered the Red Herring building at 19 Davis Street, the beleaguered employees were forced to sneak out the back door, tails between their legs, as if they had done something wrong. They had no warning whatsoever, which means that any data they have on laptops or any property they had in their desks may be lost to them forever.

It is bad enough to find yourself suddenly out of a job after giving a company your all in the face of great stress and bad press. To lose a job in such a sudden way is even worse. As of now the company web site is still active with no mention of the company losing its office space, being hounded by the electric company for back bills or any other hint of discord.

Will Vieux own up to the mess he has created and try to save the last remnant of face he can for the granddaddy of technology news 'zines? I'm guessing not. I'm guessing he will continue sticking his head in the sand, leaving his employees to twist in the wind and his company to continue to falter right up until the debt collectors come to take his shoes.