A low-profile but well-funded Newport Beach oil exploration software company has changed chief executives and laid off most of its workers, according to a report on an investing Web site.
Teralliance, which has raised $295 million in funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and others, laid off 80% of its workers, according to PEHub.com, a Thomson Reuters Corp. site.
The company had about 60 workers before the layoffs.
Among those who left is founding Chief Executive Erlend Olson, according to the report.
Terralliance makes software that the company says makes it easier and cheaper to locate oil and gas. The company uses the software to do its own exploration.
The company is trying to restructure “a massive debt-load,” according to the PEHub report.
Kleiner Perkins, Silicon Valley’s premier venture capital firm, first invested $10 million in Terralliance in 2004, when the company was valued at $40 million.
A year later, Goldman Sachs joined Kleiner Perkins in investing $35 million in Terralliance, which then was valued at $125 million.
In 2006, the company raised $250 million at a $910 million valuation. Funding in that round came from Kleiner Perkins, Goldman Sachs, DAG Ventures and Ithmar of Dubai.
Terralliance reportedly was looking to raise $1 billion in a fourth round of funding that never closed.
