SkinnyIT Reportedly Closes Doors, Just Months After IST Acquisition
October 26, 2018 by Dave Haynes
It appears that SkinnyIT, the Dallas-area field service management company that bought Installation & Service Technologies earlier this year, has folded.
IST, as it was known, had been a significant player in the digital signage field service space in recent years, and a big presence at DSE. From anything I knew, IST was very much a going concern in this business and doing well. Things appear to have went south, quickly, after this deal.
I prefaced this with “appears” because I cannot find any formal announcement. I have emailed the company’s executives and called the office, but had no response.
This is what I have pulled together. First, news of the company’s troubles reached all the way to New York and NEC’s showcase this week.
The Kansas City office, which had 65 or so people before the acquisition, went through several layoffs through the intervening months. The handful that were left were out of jobs at the start of this week.
There are lawsuits flying. Jacob Horwitz, IST’s founder, left last spring after only a few months with SkinnyIT and there is a Horwitz et al v. Skinny IT Corp et al in the Missouri court system at the moment. I am told there are others, but a Canadian trying to use the US legal look-up system is challenged (you register, they send you something in the mail, etc etc).
One read through GlassDoor reviews on the firm reveals a lot of very disgruntled employees, or more accurately, former employees.
Here’s a review from the end of September:
Pros
At this pros were the employees that have gotten fired.
Cons
Prepare yourself to be fired or sued! Upper-level management is at mercy to the CEO who terminated majority of all employees in one day. Poor management. “Titanic” like situation. Deceiving practices. Payroll nonexistent at this point. Work outsourced to the south of the border.
That’s very representative of the general tone of the reviews.
This is a screen capture of a memo sent by email this week to employees, posted on Facebook amidst a pile of what happened and WTF? comments:
As noted, I have asked for confirmation from SkinnyIT, and what the implications are for customers and suppliers. Sent an email to the CEO, HR and legal. Tried calling. Goes to voicemail.
Techlink can help rescue those projects! http://www.techlinksvc.net. Give me a call 541 719 0480
I previously worked for this company. Everything that you see in the story above is true. The company has left many previous employees in a lurch with not paying payroll to several of them. Not paying their expenses. Companies that were doing business were abandoned and left with equipment not delivered or not installed. This is just a few of the issues that have mounted since Skinny IT took over the company IST on January 1, 2018. It took a poorly run company all of 10 months to destroy 2 separate companies. This is coupled with lawsuits that have been filed in Texas, Missouri, and Federally. You can look these up under the company name in both states and in the federal case system.
Dave,
You mostly nailed this. There is a bit of information I’d like to share. The first wave of layoffs to hit the company many months ago were for the Kansas City service department. All service team operations went from Mexico City from that point forward. A few of us have dug in a bit on this and found that the company is still operating in Mexico City .
The entire accounting team in Kansas City was let go a few weeks later and to no one’s surprise the company started having incredible cash flow issues and people started not getting paid on time or at all.
On September 28th, 11 project managers were released leaving 3 left to pick up the slack. People not in Project Management positions were given dozens of accounts, none of which were going well by that time. Two of the three left for other work prior to the company folding on Monday, October 22nd.
A lot of people are still awaiting final paychecks, PTO, and expenses to be paid out. All in the industry should be aware that Sam Darwish took dozens of the hardest working and most dedicated people you’d ever meet and put them on the street and that is not an exaggeration. Techs couldn’t make it to work because they weren’t being paid. Didn’t have the gas money to make it to jobs. Upon Sam being informed of this, he just saw it as them being lazy and ended up firing them. Many people have missed home payments, rent, other important payments. Everyone has been affected negatively in some way by this catastrophe.
This is not the last you’ll be hearing of the folly that is Mr. Darwish’s “leadership.”
As a former employee I can confirm the information presented is accurate. Sam Darwish tanked a 30 year company in less than 10 months. Anyone expecting any sort of comment from the organization would have a better chance at the lotto. Be on the lookout for their Mexico City company The Foundry! They’ve shut their doors and outsourced everything. 10/10 would not recommend.
is this the same sam darwish that was honored as a charitable contributor this year.
maybe he should try his hand at sears,lol
All of the above is absolutley true. 30 year company destroyed in under 10 months. Many talented hardworking people embarrased by the lack of leadership under Sam Darwish. He systematically destroyed a profitable time tested business while bold face lying to employees from top to bottom. Sam obliterated a well oiled machine of dedicated hard working employees who cared deeply for their peers and clients. To put it bluntly, Sam Darwish does not care about his customers, his employees. Doing buisness of any sort with this man will yeild bad results. He should frankly be ashamed and embarrassed sued by anyone who has ever had the unfortunate experience of coming across this mans path.
Is The Functionary their Mexico City Boiler Room operation? I see work orders posted on various platforms from this company that I have never heard of.
Sam cut bait just as quick as he could. The company SkinnyIT was sold to the The Functionary the end of last week. The remaining employees of SKIT were giving notice it was their last week. Everything every body is saying here is 100% correct. Sam made it impossible for the company to pay its employees. Literally the week he took over our money started disappearing. Every move Sam made took the company from bad to worse under his leadership. It is my belief Sam Darwish bought IST with the intention of using it as a tax write off. Every action Sam took in dismantling IST supports that suspicion. Sam Darwish is a criminal and he belongs behind bars. He screwed over 200 people with this latest venture of his. Leaving indebt nearly a quarter of a million dollars in total to his former employees.
As a 23 year field service and veteran-owned company, Advanced Service Technologies is perfectly positioned to service Skinny IT’s mostly likely distraught customers. We will be here for you like we have our own customers for 23 years. http://www.astservice.com