IT publisher Wrox Press is set to close following the collapse into liquidation of US owners Peer Information last Friday.

Peer Information owns Friends of Ed and Wrox Press, which trades as Glasshaus, Curlingstone, and runs a number of community sites.

Glasshaus and Friends of Ed have announced that their respective sites are to close.

There's nothing on the Wrox site just yet, but links on the site suggest the business failure of Peer Information spells the demise of a whole community, which includes sites such as ASPToday.com and CSharpToday.com (both up and running but neither is taking new subscriptions or adding fresh content).

A statement by Peer Information states: "The Board of Peer Information has passed a resolution to place the company into liquidation. The company is unable to meet its financial commitments, and we have been unable to secure additional funding. The Directors are left with no choice but to place the company into insolvency process."

Workers on the various affected sites are to lose their jobs, while authors are also likely to suffer.

Chris Matterface, ex-Author Agent, Friends of Ed, asks authors to cease work on current projects in an email (republished here).

It seems unlikely that authors will receive outstanding royalties, though some have vowed to contact liquidators in the hopes of seeing some of the money they are owed. ®