ENGLEWOOD, CA and MENLO PARK, CA December 19, 2000 Today Agilera, a full-service ASP, announced that it is signing an agreement whereby it will acquire Applicast, a vertical industry-focused ASP, creating the largest privately held full-service ASP. According to company officials, the deal was struck for industry positioning initiatives and not for financial reasons. It was a stock-for-stock transaction.
The new company will operate under the Agilera name, and will maintain its headquarters in Denver, Colorado. Applicast, which is based in Menlo Park, California, will be designated as Agilera's Western Region Operations Center, while its Eastern Region Operations Center will remain in Columbia, South Carolina. In addition, the new Agilera will bring together the complementary products, resources, market strategy and staff of the two ASPs.
Applicast is a full-service vertical ASP focused on the manufacturing industry that has a solid track record of delivering productized ERP and CRM solutions, such as Siebel and SAP. Applicast will enable Agilera to accelerate the build-out and depth of its manufacturing practice, while Applicast should benefit from the sales leverage Agilera's larger reach can provide, said William G. Dering, Jr., who heads C.E. Unterberg, Towbin's ASP Research Team.
We believe the ASP industry is evolving to be about more than just hosting a single application. The key to a successful ASP business is a deep level of knowledge and understanding of customers' unique needs through an industry-specific focus, said Paul Rudolph, the chairman and CEO of Agilera. Applicast's strong heritage in the manufacturing vertical along with both companies' deep level of business process expertise, product packaging' and content will create a significant market advantage for the new Agilera.
