In the News...

Michael McCullough

VANCOUVER - One of B.C.'s largest homegrown technology companies is preparing to go public, one of the first initial public offerings of a Canadian tech firm in a very long time.

On Friday, Crystal Decisions Inc., a report-making software company, filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in advance of an initial public offering on the Nasdaq exchange.

The Vancouver company plans to raise up to $172.5 million US through the share offering, the filing stated. A portion of the new common shares will be issued by the company itself and a portion by the private holding company that owns it.

This is one of the largest technology companies in B.C. today and one that's gotten to be a good size without going public,'' said Robin Louis, president of Ventures West in Vancouver, a venture capital firm. In terms of IPOs it's going to be a big splash. There haven't been any tech IPOs to speak of at all in Canada in a long time and very few in the United States.''

Crystal Decisions has set no date for the IPO, saying it will proceed as market conditions permit.

The proceeds of the IPO will be used for working capital, capital expenditures and potential acquisitions, the company said.

We may use a portion of the net proceeds for further development of our product lines through acquisition of products, technologies and businesses. However, we currently have no acquisitions planned or negotiated,'' the filing said.

The company would trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol CRSX.

One thousand of Crystal Decisions' 1,750 staff, including its CEO and chief operating officer, work at the firm's operational headquarters in downtown Vancouver. The company maintains a legal headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., and 23 other offices worldwide.

Founded in Vancouver as Crystal Computer Services in 1984, the company hit its stride in 1992 with the introduction of Crystal Reports, a software application that searched company databases and made reports on the request of the user.

California-based computer hardware manufacturer Seagate Technology bought Crystal Services in 1996, renamed it Seagate Software, then divested again in 2000. The new owners, a private consortium made up of Silver Lake Partners, Texas Pacific Group, August Capital, J.P. Morgan Partners LLC as well as company employees and officers, changed the name back to Crystal Decisions in 2001.

All the while Crystal's report-making software business and _ most importantly to Vancouver _ its workforce grew steadily. In fact the firm grew throughout the technology implosion of the past three years, reporting 10 consecutive quarters of revenue growth. Sales reached $217 million US and net income $13 million US for the year ended June 28, 2002.

Brent Holliday of Greenstone Partners, said he not begrudge the company for bypassing Canadian stock markets in favour of the Nasdaq listing.

You get higher valuations exiting through the U.S., period,'' he said. Other companies such as PMC-Sierra and Electronic Arts have taken advantage of U.S. head offices while keeping most of their operations in Canada.