Tech firm files for bankruptcy

A cash-starved Midlands technology business enmeshed in a costly legal dispute has filed for bankruptcy protection.

Columbia-based Affinity Technology Group Inc. said it plans to conduct an orderly sale of its patents, which are its only remaining major assets.

Investors of the company's thinly traded common stock will likely receive nothing.

Between 1994 and 2002, Affinity developed automated technologies used in the electronic processing of various consumer financial transactions, such as loans payments.

The company has since ceased researching new products, and for the past several years it has been trying to make money by licensing its existing patents. It also has been spending on lawsuits over alleged infringements of those patents.

Affinity said its business was suffered a major blow in May when a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals diminished the commercial value of its patents.

Joe Boyle, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Affinity, said in statement that the company was "obviously disappointed" in Tuesday's bankruptcy filing.

He said the firm had little choice because its financial resources "are nearing exhaustion" and that raising enough capital to keep operating "is not a realistic alternative."

As of June 30, Affinity had cash and cash equivalents of $16,861 and a deficit of about $4.9 million. It had just two full-time employees as of Dec. 31. Its stock was valued at less than a penny at midday Tuesday on the Over The Counter Bulletin Board trading system.