Posted by
Brent Holliday
on
Friday, July 26, 2002 12:00 AM
From July 2002 - The summer is never slow for news. You'd think that people would just kick back, relax and wait for September. They do it in Europe, don't they? Apparently not. At least not in Paris, France near the Place Georges Pompidou. Home of Business Objects SA, a $500M a year business software maker. The new headquarters for Crystal Decisions, bought last week for US$300M in cash and roughly US$520M in stock.
What happened? Where did the bellwether IPO (initial public offering) go? Why isn't Crystal Decisions its own company with a fresh US$170M in its jeans ready to take on the world and make its new public shareholders happy? Why did our local success story, organically grown in Vancouver to 1,700 employees and over US$200M in revenue decide to become a branch office for its slightly larger competitor?