Remember when the differences between B2B and B2C were hotly discussed? Indirect vs. direct procurement? MRO vs. Office supplies? VANs vs. eHubs? Punch-outs? EDI? webEDI? TradeMatrix?
Wow, today's announcement brought me back to a time at the peak of the bubble when some were expecting every industry to neatly form into web-based silos (remember Covisint anyone?) that would forever redefine the supply-chain procurement process.
Arguably, no segment of enterprise software has been more beaten down over the last five years than supply chain management. There was a time when companies like i2 (ITWO), Manugistics (MANU), Ariba (ARBA) and CommerceOne (N/Listed) were THE hottest vendors both from an investment perspective and industry buzz. And at that time, i2 (then considered the king of the supply chain castle) announced the largest acquisition in enterprise software history. For a tidy sum of $9.3B, i2 acquired Aspect Development and promised the ultimate marriage of content and process.
Five years later, i2's new management team quietly announces the sale of their content division (a unit largely comprised of the old Aspect assets) for...$30 million.
Last time I checked...$30 million < $9.3 billion, right? That's 0.32% of the price paid for Aspect some five years ago. I guess it's better than writing the thing down to zero, but not by much.
Followup [11/22/05]: Frank Scavo, author of the Enterprise System Spectator, offered his own detailed take
on the i2 sale that's certainly worth a read. If you're not familiar
with Frank's blog but are interested in the goings on in software, you
should be.
Note: Neither I, nor funds I maintain discretionary control over, maintain a position in ITWO, MANU or ARBA at the time of this writing.
Comments