From Unigram X, a sister publication
One-time massively parallel hotbox outfit MasPar Computer Corp has emerged from its latest metamorphosis as a data mining software company complete with $6m in equity financing, a new name – NeoVista Solutions Inc – and a new bunch of marketing and distribution deals with the likes of Perot Systems, Hewlett-Packard Co and Informix Software Inc. Junking the old Maspar nomenclature and next generation MP-3 machine as well as over fifty per cent of its existing workforce – the new company is down to 40 employees- NeoVista’s added a bunch of algorithms and interface standards to its old Data Parallel Decision Inc Decision DB relational database software and repackaged the lot as a data mining solution for detailed, low-level analysis of large scale warehouse data. It claims Data Parallel – Maspar held a 27% stake in the company – has dissolved and the Decision Series represents a ‘subset’ of the original software. NeoVista says it will continue to provide support for its existing 250 customer base and deliver technology upgrades for its existing Maspar MP1 and MP2 machines. The company sucked up nearly $60m in equity financing in its six-year existence. It claims its reached agreement with its remaining creditors. NeoVista expects the service and upgrades business for its installed base to continue to bring in around $10m in revenue. The new company includes Maspar alumini Ken Simonds who’s chairman of the Board and president and CEO John Harte. Long suffering Maspar-backers Kleiner, Perkins Caufield and Byers, and Perot Systems Inc get a seat on the board, with the rest of the cash coming from Dallas, Texas-based Sevin Rosen Funds and Geneva, Switzerland-based group headed by Index Securities SA. NeoVista’s Decision Series comes as a suite of data mining tools for generating prediction models, explaining associations in data and generating optimal business patterns. The company is pitching the suite at existing data warehouses which are looking to extend traditional query-based analysis tools with predictive and proactive analysis capabilities. NeoVista admits the metamorphosis has taken longer than it would have liked – its been testing its software since September 1995 – but claims it wanted to get all its ducks in a row before it came to market. The Decision Series suite connect to query-based analysis tools including MicroStrategy’s DSS Series, Business Objects Inc’s BusinessObjects and Brio’s BrioQuery and include; DecisionAccess, a framework for enabling automated translation between relational databases and discovery tools, encoding of database types into knowledge discovery types and sampling or conditioning of data values; DecisionNet, a neural network technology for predicting business scenarios based on previous accounts; DecisionCL a clustering algorithm for finding groups of related items; DecisionGA a set of algorithms for creating potential cases based on loosely constructed models and DecisionAR, an association rule system for determining the likelihood of events occurring together at an instance or logical progression in time. The company’s won Perot Systems with a non-exclusive distribution deal for its Decision Series, joined HP’s data warehouse project OpenWarehouse and signed a joint sales and marketing agreement with Informix’s OnLine Dynamic Server parallel database. First versions of the suite ship in the third quarter on HP’s HP9000 platform with DEC and Sun planned thereafter. Pricing goes from $45,000 to $500,000 depending on configuration and number of tools purchased. Its already signed up Wal-Mart Stores and the Army Air Force Exchange for the stuff, it claims.
