Remember when Java was the hot topic in high technology?
That was two years ago, when dozens of software vendors were jumping on
the bandwagon being built by Java creator Sun Microsystems to derail
Microsoft’s monopoly in computer operating systems.
The Java movement attracted thousands of programmers and millions of
dollars in venture capital, as one start-up after another wrapped
themselves in the “write once, run anywhere” flag.
Now, other than programmers and marketing executives, no one really
talks much about Java these days. And not necessarily because Java is a
failure, though it certainly hasn’t come close to matching the overblown
claims from Sun and other Java adherents such as Oracle that the
programming language would usher in a utopian era of cross-platform
computing.
Rather, Java has quietly been assimilated into the middleware
environments of many corporate networks, where it often is used to
communicate between legacy systems and Internet-based applications.
That’s why IBM is so committed to Java; it enables existing customers to
join the Internet world without having to scrap their old mainframes
from Big Blue.
One of the many companies striving to find a niche in that middleware
market is Bluestone Software, which last Friday registered with the SEC
for an initial public offering of stock designed to raise $46 million.
Bluestone sells Web application servers, which organizations use to
handle browser-based requests for Web pages or information from back-end
databases. Because of the explosive growth of e-commerce, the
application server market is forecast by Forrester Research to top $2
billion in revenue by 2002.
But the market has experienced a shakeout in the past year, as a number
of start-ups have been bought by larger companies such as BEA Systems
(which acquired WebLogic) and Sun Microsystems (NetDynamics). And with
other giants such as Microsoft, IBM and Oracle offering their own
application servers, smaller companies such as Bluestone, Allaire and
Silverstream Software (which filed on June 11 to go public) are left
fighting for scraps.
Now, in a $2 billion market, scraps might make a decent meal. Bluestone,
however, seems to be having problems getting its share. Revenue fell
last year to $8.1 million from $9.7 million in ’97, while net loss
increased from $3.9 million to $11.6 million.
Bluestone, based in Mount Laurel, NJ, is trying to broaden its revenue
stream with XML (extensible mark-up language) software introduced this
year for Internet commerce. Still, there’s no guarantee that XML will be
adopted as a standard.
Overall, Bluestone is a company that gets high marks from technology
analysts for its products. But the company appears to be groping for a
niche in a market dominated by big players. That makes its long-term
growth prospects questionable. And with most of the big vendors having
already acquired smaller application server vendors, Bluestone may haveno choice but to go it alone, hence the IPO.
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