more evidence of ERP turnaround.
Dutch Software Maker Baan May Hire 1,000 Workers Next Year
AMSTERDAM -- Dutch software company Baan Co. NV, which is in the middle of a painful restructuring, said Thursday that it hopes to hire an additional 1,000 employees next year, depending on the developments in the industry.
"We're starting to see an improvement in the market again. If this continues, it's possible that we'll take on an additional 1,000 people sometime in 2000," Baan (BAANF) spokesman Ronald Florisson said.
After Baan's stock was hit by a downturn in the enterprise software market, an accounting scandal and botched integration of several acquisitions, the company embarked on a cost-cutting program that pared its work force to the current 4,700 from 6,000 in the fourth quarter of 1998.
In late July, Baan reported a net loss of $9.2 million, or four cents a share, its fourth straight quarterly loss, compared with net income of $17.1 million, or eight cents a share, a year earlier. Sales fell 25% to $172.8 million.
Although all players in the enterprise-software market have been struggling in the face of the market slowdown, Baan was hit harder than competitors such as SAP AG and PeopleSoft Inc.
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