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U.S.-based Vivotech is moving closer to liquidation, with the NFC company confirming that it recently entered into an assignment for the benefit of creditors agreement, a process by which the company’s assets would be sold to pay creditors.

An assignment for the benefit of creditors is an alternative to bankruptcy for insolvent companies in some states, including California, where Silicon Valley-based Vivotech is located.

Vivotech, in late July, in response to a story by NFC Times that it would cease operations, insisted that it would continue operating as an NFC software company. The company, contending that its “business fundamentals are strong,” said at the time that the planned sale of its contactless reader business was moving more slowly than expected.

A week later, Vivotech announced the sale of the reader business to U.S.-based ID Tech, which it said allowed the company to focus “100% of our energy on the continued support of our customers, contracts and partners, and on growth of this (software) business.” Vivotech's software business has included a trusted service manager, loyalty platform and mobile-wallet product.

In its statement earlier this week, posted on its Web site, the company maintained that a “large majority” of the software team remains in place, adding that the company “continues to provide support to its key software customers.”

But the assignment for the benefit of creditors agreement means Vivotech has appointed a liquidator to sell its assets.

According to Digital Transactions, the liquidator sent a notice Sept. 4 to Vivotech’s creditors, notifying them that they had until Feb. 1 to file their claims.

Vivotech has declined to say how many employees continue to work for the company. As NFC Times reported in late July, the vendor began holding conference calls telling employees the company would discontinue operations and they would no longer have jobs–though the company would continue to fulfill some contracts–as it sought to reach deals to sell its reader and possibly the software businesses.

Vivotech, one of the pioneering companies in the contactless and NFC markets, employed as many as 90 people at one time.

It has raised nearly $100 million since its founding in 2001 from venture capital firms or the venture capital arms of such companies as U.S.-based Citigroup, Singapore-based SingTel, and handset makers Nokia and Motorola.