Online analytical processing software house Pilot Software Inc has wanted to be free from its parent Cognizant Corp for some time (CI No 3,052). On Friday, it achieved that aim with the help of Platinum Equity Holdings, an investment outfit specializing in buying and growing technology companies. Platinum, which has previously invested in companies such as telecommunications software firm Digital Communications of America Inc, human resources software house David Corp and customer information management software house Foresight Software Inc (CI No 2,970), says Pilot is a core element in our strategy to deliver high- value business applications, according to Platinum chief executive officer Tom Gores. Gores cited the company’s 100,000 strong user base and the Pilot product, incorporating OLAP, data mining and Web publishing features, which gives Platinum access to a market expected to grow to nearly $500m, from a current $300m, by the year 2000. Pilot recently announced that, with version 6.0 of its Decisions Support Suite, its multi-dimensional database can now support relational data, a combination of the two main approaches to online analytical processing. Oracle Corp, Sybase Inc and IBM Corp with Arbor Software Corp all moving in similar directions. Cognizant Corp, formerly part of Dun & Bradstreet Software Corp, forced Pilot to ax its long-term president and chief executive officer Eric Kim earlier this year, in order to strengthen the company’s management team (CI No 3,100).
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