BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : AUGUST 14, 2000 ISSUE
INTERNATIONAL -- EUROPEAN COVER STORY The Rise & Fall of Baan Co. 1978 Jan Baan, a high school dropout and former clerk at a slaughterhouse, founds a software company in his rural hometown of Barneveld, the Netherlands. 1993 Seeing a bright future for enterprise software, Connecticut's General Atlantic Partners invests $21 million in Baan, buying one-third of the company. 1994 Jan Baan sells software system to Boeing. The breakthrough contract raises Baan's profile and prepares it for an IPO. 1995 Before Baan lists shares on Nasdaq and the Amsterdam exchange, the Baan brothers put control of company in the hands of their charitable foundation. In the next three years, the stock soars to 13 times its previous value. 1996 Buoyed by strong stock, Baan goes on buying spree, snapping up nine different software companies over two years, including Aurum--a rival of Siebel Systems. 1997 With demand for back-office software at an all-time high, Baan revenue soars 91%. 1998 In April, the company's share price peaks at $54. Then it adjusts first-quarter 1998 sales by $43 million, explaining that many of the sales were made to its own distribution company. Investors sell down shares 15% in two days. JULY '98 Baan brothers withdraw from the company. Tom Tinsley, a former McKinsey & Co. consultant who joined Baan in 1995, takes over CEO position. As Baan stock falls, banks that were holding the Baan brothers' stock as loan collateral unload 8% of the company. NOV. '98 President Mary Coleman, formerly of Aurum, leads move to reduce 1,200 jobs. MAY '99 Tinsley quits, taking a job at General Atlantic Partners, the same VC firm that put Baan on the map. He's replaced by Mary Coleman. JUNE '99 The Baan brothers' Vanenburg Ventures investment firm, which holds 20% of Baan stock, quietly sells more than half of it by the end of the year. JAN. '00 With finances plummeting, Mary Coleman quits. New CEO Pierre Everaert searches for a buyer. MAY '00 Britain's Invensys announces $700 million offer for Baan, pricing shares at $2.85. Aug. 1: Deal goes through. LATER 2000 Two of Vanenburg's new software companies are scheduled for IPOs on the Nasdaq. This includes Top Tier, a key software supplier to longtime Baan rival SAP. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS The Fall of Baan (int'l edition) EUROPEAN COVER IMAGE: The Fall of Baan TABLE: The Rise & Fall of Baan Co. CHART: Roller-Coaster Ride CHART: Baan's Sinking Stock Price INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

Copyright 2000-2008, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved. Terms of Use   Privacy Notice