It was a sad day this past week when CMX, Inc., a Monmouth County based engineering firm announced that it would shutting down operations on May 11th.  Founded in 1968 by Howard M. Schoor, the engineering firm employees 196 in its Manalapan office, all of whom will be out of work in a little over a month.

Citing the recession and economic woes, CMX has been attempting to raise financing recently, but to no avail.  David P. Willis and Michael L. Diamond from the APP.com wrote the following on why the company had a hard time raising working capital, “Fueled by an infusion of $74 million by Trivest Partners, a Miami-based private equity firm, Schoor DePalma went on a buying spree, picking up Damiano Long, a Camden engineering company that specialized in telecommunications, in 2005; Advantage Engineering, a Harrisburg, Pa.-based company that specialized in environmental engineering, in 2006; and CMX, the Phoenix-based company whose services include sports engineering, also in 2006…  American Capital Strategies Ltd., a Bethesda-based publicly traded capital firm, which in 2006 issued a $151 million credit line to fund the CMX acquisition and recapitalize the company, wrote off a portion of its investment in CMX in 2009, according to American Capital’s annual report filed with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission.”

It’s hard to see a local institution that has provided quality jobs for skilled engineers close its doors after nearly 40 years in business, we hope that everyone has the time to find employment elsewhere.