Bloomington's Teletron closes

After 13 years of prosperous business, Bloomington-based Teletron is shutting down. The telecommunications company informed its staff Wednesday morning that they would be out of work.\nAlmost 50 employees left the office for the last time Wednesday, but Tim Lybrook, Teletron founder and president, said they will receive their unused vacation money and final paychecks.\nThe company had an optimistic outlook in mid-September when its system, Virtual Analyst, underwent enhancements to improve sales. The system was "the nation's first solution that (allowed) companies to access inventory and billing information, as well as pay their invoices in one combined format from all their telecommunications providers local, voice, date, wireless and Internet service providers," a Sept. 16 Teletron statement said. \nBut that optimism took a turn for the worse when Lybrook said two venture capital contracts fell through this past weekend, and when the company's funds began depleting in an already shaky economy, other companies stopped investing in the business.\nLybrook told WTIU News that looking back, Teletron probably shouldn't have invested in a $4 million, 53,000 square foot facility. About 300 people used to work in the second building, but it's been empty now for about a year.\nFounded in 1989, Lybrook established the company "because of the enormous amount of tension between the service providers and end-users," and to "redefine the manner in which these entities interact by serving as an intermediary and single point of contact for telecom services," according to the company's Web site.\nIn its existence, Teletron once serviced over 5,700 clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to federal, state and local government agencies as well as numerous institutions of higher learning. \nThe corporation was also the recipient of many prestigious awards including the Richard G. Lugar Achievement Award for Economic Growth/International Commerce, Growth 100 and Bloomington's Small Business of the Year award as well as personnel awards.