Enterprise solutions provider Vignette Corp. filed Tuesday with the
Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering of $30
million in common stock.
The company applied to trade on Nasdaq under the symbol, “VIGN,” but did
not disclose the amount of shares it plans to offer nor their initial
public offering price. Vignette said it plans to use the net proceeds for
working capital and general corporate purposes.
The IPO underwriters, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Hambrecht & Quist and
Dain Rauscher Wessels, have an over-allotment option on an undisclosed
amount of additional shares.
Vignette is best-known for its StoryServer product, a Web content management
system which integrates enterprise applications and extends systems with
third party Web solutions.
In late June the company released StoryServer 4,
a collaborative desktop application in which authors, editors, designers,
developers and business
managers can develop, manage and run the Web sites.
Also in late June, Austin, Texas-based Vignette said it was shifting its
corporate strategy to focus on Internet Relationship Management (IRM), an
evolving sector of enterprise applications.
IRM applications focus on managing customer relationships in throughout the
duration of the
online customer lifecycle.
“As more and more companies turn to the Internet to interact with customers
and partners, Web sites are increasingly becoming business-critical.
Building online business processes to attract, engage and retain customers
begins with content management,” said Ross Garber, Vignette chairman.
“Leveraging our strong roots in content management, we are well-positioned
to evolve as the dominant Internet relationship management solutions
vendor with the addition of StoryServer 4’s sophisticated personalization
and profiling capabilities.”
In July, Vignette announced that it was diversifying its investor base,
with CNET selling its $5 million worth of holdings in the company, which
equaled about 20 percent of its initial investment in Vignette.
The company also reported that during the period of April to June, it
signed 40
new customers for StoryServer 4, including Lands End, Hewlett-Packard and
Lufthansa. Other customers include National Semiconductor, Bay Networks,
Ziff-Davis’ ZDNet and CNET.
