VMS closes doors in PI, leaves dozens jobless
By Kathy McCarty
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — Video Monitoring Services of America (VMS), a New York-based company with offices throughout the United States, including one on Main Street in Presque Isle, closed its doors on Friday, Aug. 26.
The company’s website, www.vmsinfo.com, had the following statement posted the same day with regard to the closing: “The VMS Board with the input of qualified professionals has elected to close VMS. Unfortunately almost all VMS personnel have been terminated effective today. The decision has been made after exhaustively evaluating many different options and with sadness for our loyal staff and customers. At some point in the very near future a trustee will be appointed to liquidate VMS. We anticipate the trustee will make future communications with customers. VMS thanks all customers for their loyal support.”
The website has since been taken down and calls to phone numbers listed online for the company go unanswered or result in a busy signal.
Information on the company’s decision to close was limited. O’Dwyer’s, a website featuring “inside news of public relations and marketing communications,” had an article posted, dated Friday, Aug. 26, that indicated “staffers were told of the news during a noon meeting and conference call from New York” and that “company officials spent Thursday weighing options after VMS’s primary lender, Capitol One, said Wednesday that it would no longer fund operations.”
It is believed the company has filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy but attempts to reach company officials for confirmation were unsuccessful at presstime.
In the O’Dwyer’s report, CEO David Stephens, who took over for Peter Wengryn last fall, “told staffers that high costs from rent agreements, coupled with VMS’s lack of market share in the social media monitoring space were among factors contributing to its downfall.”
Staffers were reportedly paid through Friday but were not offered severance or ongoing health benefits, according to the article.
The company, founded in 1981 by Robert Cohen, provided a public relations industry staple for years, through videotaped copies of news clips for customers. The digital age proved to be detrimental to the company, with digital video and increased competition making it more and more difficult for the company, which also monitored advertising content for clients. VMS has been in business in Presque Isle for roughly two decades.
According to the Presque Isle Police Department’s log Aug. 26, James Waggoner, on behalf of VMS, called indicating “the company is giving the employees an announcement today that will be a negative effect” and requested an officer in the area “in case anything happens.” No incidents were reported as a result of the announcement however.
While an exact number of displaced Presque Isle workers was not readily available, it is believed the facility employed over 40 individuals from all over Aroostook County on varying shifts.
