AlphaBlox Closes $14.75 Million in Financing; Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, The Cambridge Technology Capital Fund and Leading VC Investors Participate.MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 23, 1998-- Financing Strengthens AlphaBlox's Leadership Position, Fuels Expansion of Sales & Marketing AlphaBlox Corporation, provider of the first analytical application platform enabling complete analysis solutions for enterprise customers, today announced that it has secured $14.75 million in funding from new investors Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., or simply Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) is one of the world's largest global investment banks. Goldman Sachs was founded in 1869, and is headquartered in the Lower Manhattan area of New York City at 85 Broad Street. , Merrill Lynch Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MER TYO: 8675 ), through its subsidiaries and affiliates, provides capital markets services, investment banking and advisory services, wealth management, asset management, insurance, banking and related products and services on a global basis. and the Cambridge Technology Capital Fund, as well as current venture capital investors Accel Partners, Integral Capital Partners, Mohr Davidow Ventures and Polaris Venture Partners. These funds will be used to fuel the expansion of the company's sales & marketing organization following the successful launch of the company's flagship products A primary product of a company, which is typically why the company was founded and/or what made it well known. For example, MS-DOS, Windows and the Microsoft Office suite have been flagship products of Microsoft. CorelDRAW is a flagship product of Corel Corporation. AlphaBlox Enlighten en·light·en tr.v. en·light·ened, en·light·en·ing, en·light·ens 1. To give spiritual or intellectual insight to: (TM) and Application Assembly Studio(TM). This highly successful round which includes leading investment banks The following is a list of investment banks Financial conglomerates Large financial-services conglomerates combine commercial banking and investment banking, and sometimes insurance. , one of the top management & technology consulting firms Noun 1. consulting firm - a firm of experts providing professional advice to an organization for a fee consulting company business firm, firm, house - the members of a business organization that owns or operates one or more establishments; "he worked for a and leading firms in the venture capital community, demonstrates AlphaBlox's position as a leader in the emerging analytical applications market. Through AlphaBlox Enlighten and Application Assembly Studio, AlphaBlox is revolutionizing business intelligence and traditional development practices by offering customers unprecedented speed and flexibility to deliver easy to use analytical applications via the Web. "IDC estimates that the market for analytic applications Analytic Applications are a type of business application software, used to measure and improve the performance of business operations. More specifically, Analytic Applications are a type of Business Intelligence solution. will reach $2.6 billion by 2001," said Henry Morris, director of data warehousing See data warehouse. data warehousing - data warehouse research at International Data Corporation. "With this new infusion of capital and with an understanding of user interface requirements, AlphaBlox is poised to leverage this opportunity." "We believe that the analytical applications market is an important emerging space, and we see AlphaBlox Enlighten as a unique and innovative technology," said Randall Blumenthal vice president at Goldman Sachs. "We are enthusiastic about AlphaBlox's market position and prospects." Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and the Cambridge Technology Capital Fund, which is managed by Cambridge Technology Partners, are new investors in AlphaBlox with $5 million, $3 million and $1 million investments respectively. The balance was supplied by venture capitalists Venture Capitalist An investor who provides capital to either start-up ventures or support small companies who wish to expand but do not have access to public funding. Notes: Venture capitalists usually expect higher returns for the additional risks taken. that have financially supported the company since its incorporation in 1996. All highly successful in the high technology arena, these venture capital firms Name Location Founding date Managing Partners/Directors Specialty Capital managed 5AM Ventures Menlo Park, CA; Waltham, MA 2002 John Diekman, PhD (managing partner), Scott Rocklage, PhD (managing partner), Andrew Schwab (managing partner) life sciences $200M [1] specialize in funding enterprise startups with the best potential for success in their given market. "The Cambridge Technology Capital Fund only invests in companies where we believe we can make a difference," said Jim Sims James Morton Sims (born May 13, 1903, Leyton, Essex, died April 27, 1973, Canterbury, Kent) was an English cricketer. Jim Sims represented Middlesex in 381 first-class matches matches between 1929 and 1952 as a right-handed batsman and off-break bowler who scored 7173 runs , CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Cambridge Technology Partners. "We are excited by AlphaBlox's technology, and have already begun implementing an internal project inside of Cambridge. In the future, we can envision utilizing this product to help solve our customers' information needs." "With the additional funding, AlphaBlox has the necessary resources to maintain and extend its leadership position in the analytical applications marketplace," said Michael Skok, chairman and CEO of AlphaBlox. "We selected Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch because together, they have both the most technologically sophisticated IS organizations and savvy investment expertise which provide an excellent entree for AlphaBlox to build and grow a market presence in the financial services The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. arena. "Similarly, the endorsement of our business strategy from Cambridge will enable faster time to market and provide a tremendous opportunity for value-added distribution on an international basis." Analytical Applications Improve Business Performance for Competitive Advantage AlphaBlox Enlighten analytical applications allow companies to measure, manage and improve business performance for competitive advantage. Unlike generic query tools and static reports, AlphaBlox Enlighten analytical applications combine corporate data and business-specific analysis logic with an intuitive user interface to guide specific analysis by users. AlphaBlox Enlighten analytical applications provide consistency in the analysis, interpretation and collaboration of information for line of business managers, enabling immediate and interactive analysis to uncover critical business trends and deliver actionable information. With AlphaBlox Enlighten, analytical applications can be created specifically for executives to identify key trends in the business. Executives can then disseminate this information to the company by publishing it as a URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. available through a Web browser The program that serves as your front end to the Web on the Internet. In order to view a site, you type its address (URL) into the browser's Location field; for example, www.computerlanguage.com, and the home page of that site is downloaded to you. . Sales departments can use analytical applications to identify key opportunities for expansion. Finance can use analytical applications to analyze data and seize cost-cutting opportunities. By allowing more people in the enterprise to access information that already resides in databases or operational data warehouses, companies gain an immediate competitive advantage. AlphaBlox Enlighten AlphaBlox Enlighten is the industry's first analytical application platform designed specifically for the delivery of easy to use analytical applications for line of business managers via the Web. AlphaBlox Enlighten analytical applications automate the measurement, simplify the interpretation and provide the consistent delivery of information to manage and improve business performance for competitive advantage. Dynamic Application Assembly(TM) (DAA DAA - Distributed Application Architecture: under design by Hewlett-Packard and Sun. A distributed object management environment that will allow applications to be developed independent of operating system, network or windowing system. ), the foundation of AlphaBlox Enlighten, allows corporations to quickly assemble and deliver analytical applications without coding. DAA significantly reduces the software development cycle with a simple "Lego-like" approach where building blocks -- Blox(TM) -- are literally snapped together on a Web page creating an interactive analytical application that can be accessed through any Java capable Web browser. DAA is the cornerstone of AlphaBlox Enlighten -- an open platform providing customers with the means to create specific, easy to use analytical applications that can be broadly deployed throughout the enterprise. AlphaBlox Enlighten consists of three parts: Ready-to-Use Java Building Blox that can be assembled into analytical applications without coding; InterBlox, the Dynamic Application Assembly framework that handles communications, cooperation and control of the Blox; and BASE, The Blox Analysis Server that enables IS centralized cen·tral·ize v. cen·tral·ized, cen·tral·iz·ing, cen·tral·iz·es v.tr. 1. To draw into or toward a center; consolidate. 2. maintenance and administration of AlphaBlox Enlighten applications. AlphaBlox Enlighten 1.5, the most current version of the product, was announced today (see separate release, "AlphaBlox Delivers Performance and Feature Boost with Release of AlphaBlox Enlighten Version 1.5") and will be generally available Sept. 30, 1998. AlphaBlox Enlighten 1.5 is available by calling 888-BLOXNOW. Pricing for the product starts at $50,000 per server for the first 50 users. AlphaBlox Enlighten is available on both the NT and UNIX UNIX Operating system for digital computers, developed by Ken Thompson of Bell Laboratories in 1969. It was initially designed for a single user (the name was a pun on the earlier operating system Multics). platforms. Application Assembly Studio Application Assembly Studio is an open, modular framework of easy to use application templates that enable IS personnel to quickly and easily configure and deliver line of business analytical applications throughout the enterprise. Application Assembly Studio templates are pre-tested and ready to use, enabling IS to effortlessly ef·fort·less adj. Calling for, requiring, or showing little or no effort. See Synonyms at easy. ef  fort·less·ly adv. configure analytical applications to satisfy a broad range of users. Analytical applications produced with Application Assembly Studio are easy to use and deliver enterprise information at Web speed directly to line of business managers to solve business problems, enable more effective decision-making and improve business performance. AlphaBlox Application Assembly Studio is now available (see separate release, "AlphaBlox Enhances Flagship Product AlphaBlox Enlighten With Shipping and Availability of Application Assembly Studio"). Pricing for the product is $4,995 per application assembler Software that translates assembly language into machine language. Contrast with compiler, which is used to translate a high-level language, such as COBOL or C, into assembly language first and then into machine language. and includes two full days of application assembly and configuration training. Application Assembly Studio is also available in a product bundle including AlphaBlox Enlighten, designed for the fast, effective delivery of AlphaBlox Enlighten line of business analytical applications. About AlphaBlox AlphaBlox Corporation was founded in 1996 to provide the industry's first platform for dynamically assembling and delivering Web-based analytical applications for enterprise customers. AlphaBlox products enable customers to automate and measure their business to effectively manage and improve business performance. AlphaBlox Enlighten analytical applications combine corporate data and business-specific analysis logic in an intuitive user interface to guide specific analysis by users. AlphaBlox is dedicated to extending the rapidly expanding analytical applications market to a broader community of line of business managers and knowledge workers by delivering specific, easy to use analytical applications. By fundamentally changing the development process through Dynamic Application Assembly and allowing end-users for the first time to receive their information when, where and how they want it, analytical applications will now be available to a wider range of users, unlocking the potential of analysis in the enterprise. Customers of AlphaBlox Enlighten include Network Associates, SAAMA SAAMA San Antonio Air Materiel Area and Symantec Corporation. AlphaBlox product and professional services (job) professional services - A department of a supplier providing consultancy and programming manpower for the supplier's products. information is located on the World Wide Web at http://www.alphablox.com, and sales information is also available by phoning 888-BLOXNOW. Note to Editors: AlphaBlox, AlphaBlox Enlighten, Blox and Application Assembly Studio are trademarks of AlphaBlox Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners |
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