36 PCWorld APRIL 2020NEWS OWL CAMERAS IS DEAD
Nonetheless, we’ve been able
to piece together a chronology of
troubling events. Owl Cameras’
Twitter feed went silent after August
29, 2019. A scan of the LinkedIn
profiles of former Owl Cameras
employees showed many of them
exited around September 2019,
including founding CEO Andrew
Hodge. The company filed a
Statement of Information with the
State of California dated October 28, 2019,
listing a new CEO (Gary Clayton), and
designating co-founder/CTO Nathan
Ackerman as Secretary and Chief Financial
Officer. Gary Clayton’s LinkedIn profile now
shows he was CEO of Owl Cameras from
October 2019 to January 2020, while Nathan
Ackerman’s profile shows him as a current
employee of Owl Cameras, Inc.
And let’s not forget the users who bought
Owl Car Cams and suddenly lost all technical
support. Owl Cameras also abandoned two
business partners, Best Buy and the AAA
automotive insurance company. Best Buy was
still selling the Owl Car Cam in February, long
after the company began showing signs of
failure. AAA had inked a deal last June to work
with Owl Car Cams on behalf of its customers,
and was still promoting the deal in February.
It appears both companies learned of
Owl’s demise not from Owl itself, but rather
from PCWorld when we contacted them for
this story. Neither responded to ourcommunications directly, but we noticed that
the Best Buy retail page and AAA information
related to Owl Car Cams disappeared soon
after we contacted the companies.AN ANSWER, AND A
LITTLE HOPE
So would anyone share clear information on
the fate of Owl Cameras, and where its
customers can seek support? We finally got a
response (albeit a vague one) from Xirgo
Technologies (go.pcworld.com/xrgo), a
company that provides IoT solutions for
enterprise customers. A source within the
company confirmed that Xirgo had acquired
the assets and technology of Owl Cameras,
Inc. The purchase occurred in early February,
but has not yet been publicly announced. Our
source says the company is exploring
solutions for servicing existing Owl Car Cam
owners. At least Xirgo seems to care a little
more about these early backers than Owl
Cameras did.Owl Cameras, Inc., co-founding CTO Nathan Ackerman still
says “We’re Hiring!” on LinkedIn in early March, even though
the company closed down in January.