Smart rifle company TrackingPoint, which made a huge media splash in recent years for producing weapons that could let amateurs shoot a target from extreme distances, is about to be shut down, multiple sources close to the company told The Verge.

This week, the Texas-based company posted an ominous note on its website, saying it "would no longer be accepting orders" due to "financial difficulty." On Monday, according to those sources, TrackingPoint laid off all but about a dozen of a staff of about 40. The sources all independently postulated that the remaining employees were there as a "skeleton crew," tasked with taking inventory of the company's intellectual property before it's sold and the company declares bankruptcy in the coming weeks. "There’s not a single production person left," one source told The Verge.

TrackingPoint became a major point of media scrutiny — positive and negative — for its guns, and reportedly received millions in funding to grow the business. But sources tell The Verge that the company has been in dire financial straits for some time, with another massive series of layoffs hitting the company in February.

All of the sources cited similar instances of friction between top management at TrackingPoint and company chairman John McHale. The company has cycled through multiple CEOs and other top brass, apparently, according to sources, after disputes with McHale over the design of its guns.

TrackingPoint has not responded to a request for comment.