By Anthony Akilade
Struggling Inprise Corp looks set to follow rival Object Request Broker (ORB) maker, Dublin, Ireland Iona Technologies Inc into the enterprise application integration market following its announcement that it has secured the necessary consultancy expertise in an alliance with UK IT consultant Dunstan Thomas. Inprise and Portsmouth, UK Dunstan Thomas will together create a professional services operation to support Inprise technology in the UK, Nordic, Benelux and Eastern European regions.
Scott’s Valley, California-based Inprise will manage, market and sell these professional services. Dunstan Thomas will provide a dedicated team of around 25 professionals to provide consulting, development and training on projects involving Inprise’s Application Server, VisiBroker Object Request Broker, AppCenter and development tools, including Borland’s JBuilder, C++Builder and Delphi.
Inprise stopped short of parting with any cash and the venture may well be vulnerable to consultants jumping ship at some time in the future. A spokesperson for Inprise cryptically told us that the timing was not quite right for an acquisition, despite the company being cash rich at the moment following a $100m settlement from Microsoft Corp regarding a patent and technology licensing dispute.
The alliance requires Dunstan Thomas with annual turnover of around $3.2m to refocus its activities toward Inprise technologies with which it has around 11 years experience. Dunstan Thomas chairman, Chris Read, stressed that fears that key personnel may be tempted elsewhere were unfounded given that the two companies were very familiar with each other.
Inprise has reported net losses in four of the past six fiscal years and net revenues declined each year from fiscal 1993 through 1997. The company recorded a profit of $87.5m for the quarter ended June 30, 1999 as a result of a one-time licensing fee of $100m. Without the one-time licensing fee, Inprise would have incurred an operating loss of $10.5m.
Service revenue increased 12.5% for the quarter ended June 30, 1999 compared to the corresponding periods ended June 30, 1998. The increase in service revenue was primarily due to the growth in the US consulting business as a result of the hiring of additional consultants and the acquisition of professional services firms.
