Baan faces de-listing and funding cuts

Baan's problems took a turn for the worse last week when the vendor announced yet more losses, putting its funding plans and New York public listing under serious threat.

Baan's problems took a turn for the worse last week when the vendor announced yet more losses, putting its funding plans and New York public listing under serious threat.

The company reported a loss of $25.7m (£16.7m) in its first quarter last month, a loss for the seventh quarter in a row.

The enterprise resource planning vendor's mounting problems led to suggestions that it may be de-listed from Nasdaq or lose the $135.1m funding it recently secured from investment banker Bear Stearns.

Peter Kramer, Baan's corporate representative, would not comment on the company's dealings with Bear Sterns, but said: "Baan is under an obligation to notify stock exchanges of events that have a bearing on its stock market position. There are no unusual talks at this time."

However, Mike O'Connor, business development manager at Baan VAR Miracle Enterprise Solutions, admitted it was "inevitable" that continued press coverage of Baan's financial problems would filter down to the vendor's customers.

He added: "In the past few days people have been asking more about the financial stability of Baan, but it hasn't been hard to allay people's fears. I would like to think that Baan can weather this storm and that the quality of its products will shine through."

Baan is in the process of restructuring and is considering spinning off its customer relationship management (CRM) division. Kramer said no final decision had been taken but he admitted that such a move is possible.

Anders Ebbessen, an analyst at research company IDC, said Baan needed to re-invent itself as a CRM vendor. "The share price fall is the latest in a series of events that shows that Baan is in dire straits," he said.

Rod Johnson, analyst at researcher AMR, said Baan could be in new hands by the end of 2000.