San Diego March 4, 2002 B2B solutions provider Peregrine Systems has hired Credit Suisse First Boston "to explore strategic alternatives to optimize the value of the company's Supply Chain Enablement business."
Peregrine announced in February that it might spin off or sell off the unit, which had revenues of more than $120 million in 2001, in order to focus on the company's core business of enterprise asset management.
"Creating an independent Supply Chain Enablement business is consistent with our previously stated plan to refocus Peregrine on our core Infrastructure Management business," said Steve Gardner, Peregrine's chairman and CEO. "We are sure that a separate focus on each business will make our message to customers clearer and simpler, and, therefore, accelerate our return to profitability within each business."
Gardner added that Peregrine has taken steps to ensure the company honors existing commitments to its Supply Chain Enablement customers and that it will continue to expand services to those customers while the unit's fate is decided.
The latest move follows Peregrine's announcement in January of a loss of $16.1 million on revenues of $175.2 million for the company's fiscal third quarter. Including acquisition costs and other charges, losses for the quarter totaled approximately $88.3 million.
The Supply Chain Enablement business included assets stemming from Peregrine's acquisitions of Harbinger and Extricity. The business offers software applications and services that automate and integrate businesses and suppliers for electronic commerce.
The unit's e-commerce assets include Peregrine's global trading community, Get2Connect, which serves some 40,000 companies and enables 1.3 million e-commerce transactions daily, according to Peregrine. Peregrine's Supply Chain Enablement business also provides capabilities in data transformation, business process integration and catalog and content management.
Peregrine said its Infrastructure Management business generates the majority of revenue for the company. This unit, which claims more than 10,000 customers, provides software and services to help manage the lifecycle of enterprise assets and infrastructure.
Business integration technology and adapters acquired from Extricity in April 2001 will remain within the Infrastructure Management business and will also be cross-licensed to the Supply Chain Enablement business, Peregrine said in a statement.
