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BiblioMondo launched on the world stage
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by Peter Evans: 18th December 2000
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In a predicted move, the Canadian library systems vendor Best-Seller has acquired the UK based ALSi - the long established UK vendor.
More of a surprise is the change of name of the company to BiblioMondo™ and the launching of ambitious growth plans.
Best-Seller is a specialist in the public library niche in Canada with its Portfolio product. They are the dominant supplier in
Quebec with the major public library market share and a significant corporate customer base. In 1998 they moved into Europe with the acquisition of Speedware France - a
successful move which has seen five of the largest public libraries in the France, including Lyon and Montpelier, install Portfolio - thus becoming the dominant player . Most business
in France has been won against fellow Canadian company, Geac who are currently suffering broader financial difficulties.
ALSi have had an interesting history from their beginnings in the early 1970s when they were the public library system of
choice in the UK, through the 1980s when their robust, high throughput systems became popular in the Netherlands and Germany, until they lost their way somewhat in the 1990s.
Their UK market share now consists of 16 authorities - but include major sites like Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire in the populous London commuter belt. Financing has been
the recent problem which the deal with Best-Seller / BiblioMondo will solve as the new Canadian venture brings an investment backing of $23 million Canadian (£10.25 million , $US 15 million).
The acquisition also buys out the PICA shareholding in ALSi. Pica is a Dutch co-operative cataloguing organisation - now mostly owned by OCLC - which took a stake in ALSi about 3 years ago.
BiblioMondo's marketing strategy is to focus exclusively on public and corporate libraries and to
become a serious world player. This strategy will probably see a US company added to the group next year. The technology strategy is firmly based on a "Web centric" vision. Both
Portfolio and Concerto - ALSi's latest product - are Web centric products - defined by BiblioMondo as as being totally written and designed for the Web. This is different from Web
"enabled" which implies a product that merely has a web capability - according to Todd Joron - president and CEO of BiblioMondo.
Technically, Portfolio is a UNIX / AIX product and Concerto is NT. This is seen as a strategic
partnership enabling both of the major platforms to be offered in the future. The Web centric architecture of the products, coupled with the explosion in broadband access to the Internet for
public libraries will fuel the future growth of the company believes Joron. Investing companies include TechnoCap which includes many broadband technology companies.
As a demonstration of the trend towards globalisation, this announcement is very important.
Showing, not only the trend towards larger globally operating companies, but also the fact that the only way to survive in today's marketplace and match the pace of technical change is to be well
funded. To attract significant finance there has to be a global business vision as well as a technical product.
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BIBLIOMONDO - THE WORLD’S eLIBRARY NETWORK
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Launched After Best-Seller Acquires ALS International |
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London, Paris, Cologne, Amsterdam, Philadelphia, Montreal - December 5th, 2000: BiblioMondo™
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the World’s eLibrary NetworkTM (www.BiblioMondo.com) was launched today after leading software company Best-Seller acquired the European software
company ALS International Inc and renamed the company to BiblioMondo Inc. This acquisition follows a recent funding by Investissement Desjardins (other portfolio
companies include Miranda, 20/20 Technologies & Silanis), the Royal Bank of Canada, a European private
investor and TechnoCap of Montreal (Hyperchip, VIPswitch & YottaYotta). "With over 19 million BiblioMondo users and the largest library network in the world, Investissement Desjardins
is pleased to be a partner in BiblioMondo and in its exponential growth as the World's eLibrary Network.” said Pierre Brunet, Senior Vice-President, Investissement Desjardins.
“BiblioMondo unleashes the Optical Tidal Wave on the World’s multi-media libraries.” said Todd Joron, President & CEO of
BiblioMondo. “This strategic partnership enables BiblioMondo to capitalize on the explosive growth in the demand for eLibrary Networks.” The enterprise
market for Internet and Intranet Corporate and Public multimedia libraries is approximately $1 billion dollars. "(The eLibrary Network market) certainly is a niche vertical that they're moving into
and if you look at any high-tech success, attacking one vertical seems to have been the way to go," said Kevin Restivo, an analyst with IDC. BiblioMondo is the World’s eLibrary Network.
BiblioMondo provides massively scalable networking for the worlds 712,000 multi-media libraries (audio, video, digital works) and access to their vast content via the Internet or
Corporate Intranet. With Y2001 revenues projected at over $15M, 140 employees and offices in 6 countries, BiblioMondo has network nodes in London, Paris, Cologne, Amsterdam,
Philadelphia and Montreal and boasts 1400 clients in 9 countries and 19 million users. BiblioMondo has the largest network of libraries in the world. BiblioMondo’s clients in North
America include America OnLine Inc., the world leader in interactive services; Hydro-Québec, the largest supplier of electricity in North America; the Bibliothèque Nationale du Québec, the largest
library in Quebec. In Europe major customers include the Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon, the largest network of municipal libraries in France; the City of Hamburg, the largest single library
network in Germany; PRISM, the largest shared local-authority system in England and ProBiblio, which is simultaneously the largest library network in the Netherlands and in the world.
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Investissement Desjardins (www.Desjardins.com/id) is the venture capital arm of the Mouvement
Desjardins, covering investment in growth companies and investment funds. Its mission is to create value in associated companies and help them achieve a significant position in their sector
of activity, on both Canadian and international markets. Royal Bank of Canada (www.RoyalBank.com) is a diversified global financial services group and a leading provider of
personal and commercial banking, investment and trust services, insurance, corporate and investment banking, online banking and transaction-based services including custody.
TechnoCap (www.TechnoCap.com) is a venture capital company that is in the business of starting and building massively scalable netOptical companies. TechnoCap’s investee
companies (the “TechnoAffiliates”) include massively parallel optical companies such as YottaYotta, VIPswitch, Hyperchip and BigBangwidth and massively scalable net software
companies such as webPLAN, OriginalSim, netPCS, Jiveway, GlobalMedic, FreeBalance and BiblioMondo. |
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