Pinetree Visual Insights acquires Visible Decisions
Pinetree Capital Corp PNP
Shares issued 9,390,069 2000-01-21 close $4.25
Monday Jan 24 2000
Mr. Sheldon Inwentash reports
Visual Insights, Inc., a spinoff of Lucent Technologies, has acquired all the
outstanding shares of Visible Decisions Inc. for a combination of cash and
warrants. Prior to the closing of the acquisition, Pinetree held an approximate
40-per-cent equity interest in VDI. The following is a press release issued by
Visual Insights earlier today.
Visual Insights today announced that it has acquired Visible Decisions, Inc.
Toronto-based, Visible Decisions, is the developer of In3D and SeeIT software
applications and the leading designer of custom data visualization applications for
the financial services industry. Formerly a wholly owned Lucent Technologies
venture, Visual Insights also announced that it has received venture financing from
ABN AMRO Private Equity, the Intel 64 Fund, and Emigrant Capital, as well as
additional investment from Lucent's New Ventures Group.
The combination of Visual Insights and Visible Decisions creates the world's
leading provider of data visualization-based software and services for business
performance analysis. Visual Insights solutions enable its customers to build
sophisticated marketing, financial and sales strategies by providing a better
understanding of customer behaviour, promotional effectiveness, risk, finance, and
other business performance indicators. Visual Insights' products incorporate
patented visual discovery technology, used to visually identify trends, make
comparisons and gain insights from business data, and realTime3D reporting, the
company's next-generation reporting and presentation solution. Combined, visual
discovery and realTime3D reporting enable more people to make better business
decisions -- fast.
"The acquisition of Visible Decisions, along with the strength of our new
investment partners, enables Visual Insights to bring new applications to market
that will revolutionize the way people build sales, marketing, and operational
strategies based on historical and real-time data," said Douglas A. Cogswell,
president and chief executive officer of Visual Insights. "With the need to react so
quickly, particularly in e-business, organizations are starving for a new class of
solution that transcends traditional query and reporting methods."
"Our combined mission is to improve the way our customers build and manage
their business performance strategies," said Sharon Lyons, the vice-president of
sales and services for Visual Insights and former president of Visible Decisions.
"Together we can accelerate our product plans and attain broader market
penetration for a new class of e-business focused applications."
Visual Insights vision is well supported by a network of high-profile investors,
business partners, and customers. "We are delighted at the Intel 64 Fund's
investment in Visual Insights," said Anand Chandrasekher, vice-president Intel
Architecture Business Group and general manager of the Workstations Products
Group. "The combination of Itanium-based workstations and Visual Insights
next-generation analysis and visualization software can help give leading edge
e-business a compelling advantage over their competitors."
"Visual Insights has successfully leveraged one of the true gems of Bell Labs
software and created what we believe will become a very strong player in the
Web commerce field," said Tom Uhlman, president of Lucent's New Ventures
Group. "We are glad to see such a strong enterprise emerge from the union of
Visible Decisions and look forward to continued success."
Keith Walz, director of ABN AMRO Private Equity, said: "ABN AMRO looks
for high-growth companies that have the vision, technology and management skills
required to develop innovative products and sustain growth, while maintaining a
highly competitive market position. Visual Insights fulfills these criteria, and we are
pleased to be part of the investment team for this Chicago area enterprise."
ABN AMRO's risk management and risk control department is also a Visual
Insights customer. It uses the company's products to visually identify, quantify and
analyze market and financial risks.
Another notable customer is the Nasdaq-Amex Market Group, a subsidiary of the
National Association of Securities Dealer, Inc., the organization that operates the
Nasdaq Stock Market and the American Stock Exchange. In the Nasdaq-Amex
MarketSite, a showcase broadcast facility built last year in New York, the firm
employs advanced animated visual designs to graphically illustrate stock market
activity. Viewing a 10-storey outdoor video wall, newscasters and viewers can
track investments, at a glance, from a single stock to a whole portfolio.
Jack Feder, director of MarketSite, said: "Visual Insights' visualization capabilities
allow us to present, in real time, an accurate and complete picture of a fast-moving
market. It's tough to beat visualization when it comes to providing an immediate
understanding."
Additional Visual Insights customers and business partners include Andersen
Consulting, Bank of America, Bank One, Dow Jones, First Data Resources,
Lucent Technologies, J.P. Morgan, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter,
Northern Telecom, Northern Trust, SAP, the Toronto Stock Exchange, and
USWeb/CKS. Many independent software companies, including Cognos
Corporation, IBM, and i2 Technologies, integrate Visual Insights technology into
their products to improve their analysis and presentation capabilities.
About Visual Insights
Visual Insights was formed in 1997 to commercialize Lucent Technologies Bell
Laboratories' extensive research and development efforts in data visualization
technology. Today, Visual Insights ADVIZOR, ADVIZOR/2000, In3D and
SeeIT products, plus a world-class custom visualization design team, provide risk
management, business intelligence and decision support solutions for corporation,
original equipment manufacturers and ISVs. Its solutions serve a wide range of
industries, including banking, financial services, catalogue and retail enterprise, and
government agencies.
About ABN AMRO Private Equity
ABN AMRO Private Equity, headquartered in Chicago, Ill., invests in rapidly
growing emerging businesses with a focus on information technology,
telecommunications, business-to-business commerce and health care services.
ABN's investment strategy is to invest capital behind strong motivated
management teams and to assist them in positioning their companies for significant
growth and profitability.
About the Intel 64 Fund
The Intel 64 Fund is a quarter billion dollar equity fund that invests in emerging
technologies for next-generation servers and workstations using Intel's IA-64
architecture. The fund is co-ordinated by Intel with Compaq, Dell, HP, Intel,
NEC, and SGI as co-investors. The fund's other investors, managed by Morgan
Stanley Dean Witter, include Bank of America, the Boeing Company, Circuit
City, Enron, Ford Motor Company, General Electric, McKessonHBOC, Morgan
Stanley Dean Witter, Reuters, Sabre, SmithKline Beecham, Sumitomo Corp.,
SunAmerica and Telmex.
About Lucent Technologies
Lucent Technologies (NYSE:LU), headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., designs,
builds and delivers a wide range of public and private networks, communications
systems and software, data networking systems, business telephone systems and
microelectronic components.
About Emigrant Capital
Emigrant Capital is a private equity fund which invests in growth companies,
recapitalizations and management buyouts. The $150-million fund invests
$2-million to $20-million in equity and mezzanine financings. Emigrant Capital
backs outstanding management teams in industries including: chemical, health care,
technology and manufacturing. The fund is an affiliate of Emigrant Bancorp, a
privately held bank in New York with $7-billion in assets. The investment adviser
to Emigrant Capital is the Courtney Group, Incorporated, an investment banking
firm focused on mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, and strategy. Thomas W.
Courtney Jr., president of the Courtney Group will join the board of directors of
Visual Insights, Inc.
(c) Copyright 2000 Canjex Publishing Ltd. canada-stockwatch.com |
