What was supposed to become a dream golf date has turned into a messy courtroom battle.
In January, ParView Inc., the Sarasota-based supplier of global positioning systems for golf courses, combined its ongoing business with one of its largest competitors, ProLink of Arizona.
Only six months later, the two are engaged in a bitter lawsuit in federal court in Tampa.
ParView filed the first volley, suing ProLink in Circuit Court in Sarasota on May 20. In its eight-page suit with more than 100 pages of attached contracts and internal accounting documents, ParView alleged that the Arizona company failed "to honor its promises to and obligations of ParView" and asked the court to rescind all agreements between ParView and ProLink.
For its part, ProLink quickly got the case moved to federal court in Tampa, then filed a motion to compel ParView to submit its claims to arbitration. ProLink said arbitration proceedings were already under way in Phoenix, before the American Arbitration Association.
A number of the documents ParView signed in January did call for arbitration to settle any disputes.
But the Sarasota company maintains that the claims in its lawsuit go well beyond the signed agreements. ParView alleges that Lawrence Bain, ProLink's president, "made certain promises and representations to ParView to induce it to enter into the various agreements," knowing "that these promises and representations were false."
Bain's goal, the suit alleges, was to take what ProLink wanted from ParView, then discard the company "so that ParView would go out of business, thus eliminating ProLink's principal competitor and giving it the intellectual property that it desperately needed."
The deal, just short of a merger, sounded great on paper.
ProLink had a 3-year-old arrangement to supply golf cart maker E-Z-Go with the electronic gear now being installed in most golf course-operated golf carts.
ParView has been supplying Yamaha Golf-Car Co. for more than two years. Together the two companies control roughly three-fourths of the total GPS-equipped golf cart market.
The equipment is visible to golfers in the form of a touch-screen that shows players where they are on each hole, provides tournament scores and even lets them order drinks and snacks.
The systems also typically run advertisements, which provide a separate stream of revenue to the supplier. They also help golf course managers keep traffic flowing around the course on busy days, and get players off the course quickly if there is a danger from lightning.
ParView alleges that after signing the deal, the ProLink side failed to make agreed-upon payments to ParView creditors and others.
"As a result, ParView has been sued on three occasions and anticipates additional suits are forthcoming," the suit states.
ParView outlined more than $500,000 in unfulfilled payments. One example was that the newly created entity was supposed to make a rebate payment to Fort Lauderdale's well-known Inverrary Golf Club, and did not. ParView said it has since been sued by the course.
There are now two ParView offices in Sarasota. ParView Inc., now a shell corporation with two employees, has offices on Main Street in Sarasota. At ParView's old office on Apex Road in Sarasota, the phone is answered "ProLink/ParView LLC."
On its own, ParView had yearly revenues of $10 million and about 40 employees in Sarasota. Most of those employees have been dismissed as a result of the business combination.
"I'm extremely disappointed with the direction that this deal has taken," said David Chessler, who founded ParView and remains a major shareholder.
Martin Galbut, a Phoenix attorney working for ProLink and ProLink/ParView LLC, said, "We completely disagree with the allegations they have made."
Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Florida)