Cygent Closes $40 Million in Third Round Funding.Business/Technology Editors SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 25, 2000 Charter Growth Capital Leads Group of Strategic Investors Including Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA[3]) is an American vendor of computers, computer components, computer software, and information-technology services, founded on 24 February 1982. , MetaSolv, Mitsui & Co., Ltd., Mitsui Comtek Corp., and Bussan Systems Integration Co., Ltd. Cygent, Inc., the only Internet software company to offer a comprehensive eBusiness solution for the communications industry communications industry, broadly defined, the business of conveying information. Although communication by means of symbols and gestures dates to the beginning of human history, the term generally refers to mass communications. , today announced the completion of a $40 million funding round led by Charter Growth Capital. Charter was joined by Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW SUNW Sun Microsystems, Inc (former stock symbol; now JAVA) SUNW Stanford University Network Workstation (Sun Microsystems, Inc) ); MetaSolv Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: MSLV); Mitsui & Co., Ltd., Mitsui Comtek Corp., and Bussan Systems Integration Co., Ltd.; and several private investors who made strategic investments in Cygent. Cygent's largest existing investors-- Telecom Italia Telecom Italia is formerly a partially state-owned Italian telco. It was once known as SIP, and it has the largest user base in Italy. Telecom Italia also owns shares in Telecom Argentina and Telecom Personal, fixed and cellular networks in Argentina. Ventures, Trinity Ventures, and Crescendo Ventures-- each increased their investment in the company. Cygent will use this funding to accelerate its sales, marketing, product development and business development activities, and to expand its international presence. "Cygent has the vision and the solution to change the way communications services are bought and sold," said Kevin McQuillan, General Partner at Charter Growth Capital. "They have a premier set of strategic alliances, and an experienced and driven management team. We are confident in Cygent's future success, and we are very pleased to lead this round of financing." Sun Microsystems has been a Cygent strategic partner since 1999. As a SunConnect partner and Java Community Process Sun's system for allowing third parties to submit requests for new features to Java. JCP is a formal process that must be adhered to, and fees are involved. In 1999, Sun submitted Java to the ECMA standards body, but withdrew its J2SE specification later in the year. participant, Cygent is committed to developing Java-based eBusiness solutions for the communications industry. "In developing a flexible and extensible provisioning platform based on open standards Specifications for hardware and software that are developed by a standards organization or a consortium involved in supporting a standard. Available to the public for developing compliant products, open standards imply "open systems;" that an existing component in a system can be replaced , Cygent has shown a keen understanding of communications service providers' business processes and requirements," said Brian Sutphin, vice president of Sun's venture and strategic investments group. "We are extremely impressed with the powerful combination of Cygent's technology innovation based on Java technologies, implemented on Sun's industry-leading, carrier-grade platform." MetaSolv and Cygent announced last month that MetaSolv will resell, under an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) The rebranding of equipment and selling it. The term initially referred to the company that made the products (the "original" manufacturer), but eventually became widely used to refer to the organization that buys the products and agreement, Cygent-powered Web self-care capabilities within its Telecom Business Solution(TM)(TBS(TM)) software. Mitsui & Co., Ltd., Mitsui Comtek Corp., and Bussan Systems Integration Co., Ltd. will become Cygent's first software distributor in the Asia-Pacific region, focusing initially on the Japanese market. "Cygent is thrilled to work with these premier investors. Charter Growth Capital shares our vision and has proven itself to be a trusted and valued partner," said Kevin Elmore, president and chief executive officer of Cygent. "Sun, MetaSolv, and Mitsui are all outstanding companies that will help us grow our business in the US and abroad." About Cygent Cygent is the only Internet software company to offer a comprehensive eBusiness solution for the communications industry, linking wholesalers and retailers of communications services to each other and to their customers via the Internet. Cygent creates a speed-to-market advantage for communications service providers by accelerating their move to online business and enabling rapid deployment of new products and services. Cygent eBusiness Support Systems (eBSS) streamline each step in the customer-retailer-wholesaler demand chain through an integrated Internet storefront that supports (1) one-to-one marketing, (2) online shopping and ordering, (3) bill presentment and payment See EBPP. , and (4) customer self-care. Cygent enables end-to-end solutions through alliances with communications and eBusiness leaders including BEA Systems BEA Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: BEAS) is one of the major companies developing enterprise infrastructure software. BEA makes middleware, products that help software run on top of databases. , Business Edge, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, Deloitte Consulting, MetaSolv, Portal Software Portal Software was founded in 1985 as Portal Information Network, one of the first ISPs in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was founded by John Little. The company offered its own interface through modem access that featured Internet email. , Sun Microsystems, and Vitria Technology. Cygent is a privately held company privately held company A firm whose shares are held within a relatively small circle of owners and are not traded publicly. with headquarters in San Francisco and offices worldwide. For more information, please visit www.cygent.com. Cygent and MetaSolv are registered trademarks. Telecom Business Solution and TBS are trademarks of MetaSolv Software, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. |
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