Baan founder gets $80 mln funding for latest firm
SAN FRANCISCO, April 17 (Reuters) - A Dutch software maker founded by Jan Baan -- whose once-high-flying company Baan collapsed nearly a decade ago after mounting losses and questions over accounting methods -- has secured $80 million in private equity funding.
Cordys Holding B.V. said on Tuesday that Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Argonaut Private Equity led the latest round of funding to gain a significant minority stake in the software maker, which was founded in 2001 and helps companies better use technology to run their businesses.
Cordys said the investment marks one of the largest single such deals for a so-called business process management software vendor competing in a $1 billion market, which is estimated to grow to $2.6 billion by 2011.
Baan started Cordys in the Netherlands in 2001, about four years after he left Baan, which was among the first European technology companies to get U.S. venture capital backing.
He left after a drop in sales and amid concern that aggressive accounting and unusual ties to his separate investment company were used to inflate Baan's revenue.
Baan the company, once a darling of technology investors that challenged German business software maker SAP AG (SAPG.DE), eventually collapsed after a string of poor results. It was bought by Britain's Invensys Plc (ISYS.L) in 2000 and sold three years later to U.S. private equity firms.
Jan Baan later invested in Internet portal software company Top-Tier that was later acquired by SAP and online video conferencing company WebEx Communications, which Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO.O) agreed in March to buy for $2.9 billion.
