REDWOOD CITY, CA May 1, 2001 BroadVision's horizon has been pretty hazy lately. With missed earnings in April of almost $45 million, the company was forced to layoff 15% of its workforce. And its stock has been struggling too.
But BroadVision finally got some really good news yesterday, and its stock is performing accordingly. The e-business applications provider announced that Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has decided to extend its existing relationship with BroadVision by signing a global licensing agreement. The agreement means that Wal-Mart will standardize BroadVision's suite of e-business applications, expanding it to its other online retail initiatives such as www.samsclub.com and www.asda.co.uk. BroadVision will also be used for new developments, including an extensive associate portal for the company, expected to go live in the first half of 2001.
On the market yesterday, BroadVision's stock was up .73 to 6.24. This morning, it was trading around 6.50.
Of the agreement, Kevin Turner, CIO of Wal-Mart Stores, said, We chose to standardize on BroadVision because of the applications' proven scalability and reliability. It was important for us as a company to select a vendor who has proven they can offer world-class support and reliability.
Wal-Mart Stores enjoys a worldwide reputation of excellence in technology in the retail industry, said Dr. Pehong Chen, president and CEO of BroadVision. We're particularly excited to see them leverage their previous work with BroadVision's sell-side applications to quickly and cost-effectively develop a world-class intranet using our employee-facing portal solution.
