There are other southern California-based publishers-- Go! Comi, based an hour off from Torrance and also awfully quiet of late; Seven Seas in Los Angeles, which just did some license rescues and is therefore probably not struggling all that much, and TOKYOPOP, which if nothing else has considerably more than two employees. So I'd join Simon and put my money on Aurora.
According to The Comics Reporter, Aurora is also about to lose its contract with digital manga/manhwa publisher Netcomics.com, who will be removing all Aurora manga from its site on April 14th-- which seems like another sign of a likely demise-- not to mention that attempts to reach Aurora have generally been in vain (the only phone number I've ever had for them is apparently disconnected, and as yet there has been no response to my e-mails).
It's rather fascinating: Aurora's focus was on the female market, publishing josei and yaoi titles. Yaoi fans in particular are widely credited with being better about buying than the average anime/manga fan in the US, but that doesn't seem to have helped Aurora much. On the other hand, their titles never seemed to get a lot of buzz, for all that some of them were quite good.
Not saying there's a definite connection here (heck, not even sure if Aurora is the publisher for sale, or that the sales listing is even active), but it's quite a coincidence. Perhaps this is the first rumblings of an overall shift of strategy at the Japanese publishers, a realignment of loyalties and partnerships, and a new perspective on licensing.
In seeing this it makes me wish I had the time, money and materials to buy/save this company. A key location and recognizable name are important points to understand when trying to make your name (or a title's name) worth its salt to America and its anime/manga audience*.
I feel that anime/manga need to become fully mainstream and will do what I can to make such a world possible.
Whew... when I saw the headline I immedietly thought of 7 Seas. Then I read the description and knew it wasn't them and I'm glad. I know too many folks over there and I'd hate to see them fold. (Even been on a panel with them at Comic Con. :) )
As I said I know several of the artists and writers personally and knew the president on a first name basis. At least back then I did. :\