On April 5, 2000, Top Tier Software, Inc. (http://www.toptier.com) filed their initial registration for a NASDAQ listing. This is just 2 weeks after Jan Baan was named as Chairman of Net Shepherd.
As you read through the filing you will see several items of interest.
ú They are owned by the Vanenberg Group
ú Jan Baan is on their board of Directors
ú Their focus is on integrating information
ú Their major customers are SAP and The Baan Company
As I read through the filing I was thinking of the similarities between Net Shepherd and Top Tier. Primarily, the use of information and knowledge management. It seems to me that we may be hearing a lot more about Top Tier and Vanenberg. This is pure speculation on my part, but take some time and read their S1 filing . It is located at:
freeedgar.com
Here are a few key points from the filing
Overview
We are a leading provider of eBusiness portal technologies and products that integrate information residing in a business' internal and external enterprise applications, databases, text documents, Web sites and other data sources. Our eBusiness Integration Portal software products are designed to enable a business' extended enterprise of employees, customers, suppliers and business partners to directly access, navigate and manipulate integrated information using an intuitive and effective portal interface. We have licensed our software directly to over 75 companies, including Equilon (a consortium of Royal Dutch Shell, Texaco and Aramco), Herman Miller, Hewlett-Packard, KPN (Dutch Telecom), Nortel Networks, Phillips Group, Ricoh Canada and Rolls Royce Marine. Our technology is also embedded in and ships within eBusiness
applications such as mySAP.com Workplace, sold by SAP AG, and Baan Data Navigator, sold by Baan Company.
Our software products are developed around our patented HyperRelational technology, a protocol for accessing and interacting with structured and unstructured data. Based on a combination of hypertext and relational models, our HyperRelational technology directs the end user to related data from multiple sources, using meta-data describing these sources. As a result, end users of our software are able to directly access, use and manipulate information that is relevant to their query and are not merely directed to one,
predetermined data location.
Acquisition by Vanenburg
From June 1997 to October 1998, Vanenburg Group BV acquired all of our outstanding equity through a series of purchase transactions.
Jan Baan , one of our directors, was an executive officer of Baan Company at the time that we entered into the memorandum of understanding with Baan Company in August 1998. In 1999, we received approximately 71% of our total revenues from this memorandum of understanding. In addition, Jan Baan and Andries Bottema, two of our directors, are affiliated with Vanenburg Group B.V., which beneficially owns over 10% of Baan Company's outstanding capital stock and is our majority stockholder.
Preferred Stock Financings and Acquisition by Vanenburg
From June through November 1997, we sold an aggregate of 6,709,264 shares of our Series B preferred stock to Vanenburg Group B.V.
On October 6, 1998, we entered into an Agreement and Plan of Reorganization with Vanenburg, whereby Vanenburg acquired substantially all of our outstanding capital stock. Two of our directors, Jan Baan and Andries Bottema, are affiliates of Vanenburg. Under the terms of that agreement, (1) we merged with a wholly-owned subsidiary of Vanenburg, with Top Tier Software, Inc. as the surviving corporation.
Regards,
Barry |
