Commander appoints administrators

On my Australian Technology Blog I commented about the problems of Commander Communications last January. I thought they were doomed at the time and said so.

Today they appointed official receivers for the business.

In the last month we've seen the collapse of the Bill Express empire as well which has been well documented in Mark Fletcher's Newsagency Blog.

The sad thing is both of these businesses had great propositions; Bill Express' network of newsagents and Commander's taking over of the old Telstra small business systems were fantastic assets.

I suspect in both cases the problem was easy money. While the tide was rising bad managers could make bad decisions and get away with it because there were always willing lenders and investors to cover the costs of those mistakes.

Now the tide is running out and money is tighter we see those business suffering.

In the tech sector, companies like Commander and Bill Express are the just the beginning. There's a lot more that are going to be found wanting.

The good managers should be looking at their costs and funding right now. If their business units are not making a profit then it's time to ask some serious questions.