With more than 26 years of experience in the information technology arena,
Alfred Amoroso (President and CEO) is now working on taking
CrossWorlds Software Inc.
public. Mr. Amoroso began his career with EDS Corporation
back in 1974. In 1977 he founded Computech Corporation, which was purchased
by Price Waterhouse in 1985. He continued to hold senior mangment positions
with PricewaterhouseCoopers until he left the firm to work at IBM in 1993.
Mr Amoroso stayed with IBM until October 1999, which is also the month he
came to work at CrossWorlds Software Inc.
The price range on CrossWorlds IPO is $14-16, the lead underwriter is Chase
H&Q and the proposed ticker symbol is CWLD.
CrossWorlds Software Inc. provides e-business infrastructure software —
products that allow businesses to use the Internet in order to reduce
information technology costs, increase productivity, improve responsiveness
to customer demands and enhance overall competitiveness.
E-commerce leaders have found that a well-planned business integration
strategy, both within and beyond the enterprise, is both difficult and a
necessary part in setting up an efficient e-commerce Web site. Real time
access to information from anywhere in your enterprise is a must.
CrossWorlds products are comprised of 5 key elements:
– Comprehensive e-business support
– Real-time Business Process Automation
– Packaged Application Integration
– Custom and Legacy Application Integration
– Scalable Integration Architecture
In addition to Mr. Amoroso, other outstanding management personnel include
Mark Kent, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and Prashant
Gupta, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. Mr Kent has 18
years experience in banking and financial management including Corporate
Treasurer of LSI Logic Corporation. Mr. Gupta worked as the software
architect at Illustra/Informix, and he served as the chief technical
architect at Sybase.
CrossWorlds has managed to attract the interest of investors such as Axon
Solutions (United Kingdom), Compaq Computer Corporation, Intel Corporation,
J.D. Edwards, Omron Corporation (based in Japan), Nexus Group LLC, Dain
Rauscher Wessels, Hambrecht & Quist/Access Technology Partners. They have
also attracted individual investors including Michael Dell, CEO, Dell and
Dave Duffield, CEO, PeopleSoft.
CrossWorlds customers include Applied Materials, Nortel Networks, Siemens,
Sony Corporation, MCIWorldCom, Excel Communications, Inc., U S WEST,
Andersen Corporation, Ingersoll-Rand, The Dow Chemical Company, DuPont,
Baxter Healthcare, and Neoforma.com, Inc.
CrossWorlds revenues have grown from $1.1 million in 1997 to $7.7 million
in 1998 and to $19.1 million in 1999. However, debt is growing. It was
$14 million in 1997, $41.4 million in 1998 and down to $38.2 million in
1999. Their accumulated deficit as of March 31, 2000 was approximately $106
million.
The press, their customers, and their alliances boast CrossWorlds
accomplishments. The recent hire of Alfred Amoroso and the hard work
CrossWorlds is definitely a plus. However, the company is in an extremely
competitive space and in the harsh IPO environment, it may be difficult for
this one to be a high performer.
