Founders
Intraware was co-founded by East Bay entrepreneurs Peter Jackson and Mark Hoffman. Peter Jackson served as co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer. Jackson was a UC Berkeley graduate who had been in the local tech business for decades, having previously started Lafayette-based Granite Systems in 1985, which he sold to DataFlex in 1994.
Company History
Founding (1996) Intraware was founded in 1996 and was headquartered in Orinda, California. Jackson founded Intraware in 1996 after selling his previous company DataFlex to Vanstar in 1996.
Early Technology Development (1996-1999) The Orinda-based company developed the first versions of its technology more than a decade ago (referring to early development in the late 1990s). Intraware historically provided services and software in three categories: Software Procurement, Software Update Management, and IT Asset Management.
IPO and Dot-Com Boom (1999-2001) Intraware went public in 1999 with an initial public offering that was typical for those heady days – the company’s shares shot 18 percent higher on the first day of trading, and fewer than 10 months later, the stock had increased fivefold from the IPO price. During the dot-com boom, the stock hit nearly $80 (and reached as high as $812.50 adjusted for splits).
Crisis and Recovery (2001-2008) Intraware teetered on the edge of bankruptcy in 2001. The company’s fiscal 2006 sales of $11.5 million were a fraction of the peak sales of $121.8 million in 2001, and the company had posted cumulative losses of $121 million for 2000, 2001 and 2002. Jackson said: “We took it from $40 million in debt, nearly shut the doors in 2001, and now are generating cash flow. It took seven years, but we got it right.”
Core Business and Technology
SubscribeNet Platform Intraware offered SubscribeNet, a Web-based delivery and support platform that enables technology companies to deliver, track, and manage the software, licenses, and other digital content they distribute to their customers. For a decade, the software was used to deliver applications for customers such as Microsoft Corp., IBM Corp., Dublin-based Sybase Inc. and others, with about 50 software companies subscribing to the service.
Business Model The company provided software lifecycle management services for corporations and enterprise software vendors in the United States and internationally, and digital delivery and entitlement management solutions. Intraware provided global electronic software delivery and management (EDSM) services for the enterprise software industry using its patent-pending platform.
Funding and Acquisition
Investment Intraware raised funding over 1 round with 5 institutional investors including TCV, Kleiner Perkins and Canaan. The company raised a total of $16.94M, with investors including J.F. Shea, Comvest Partners, MicroCapital, Harvard Investments, and Passport Capital.
Final Acquisition (2008) In 2008, Acresso Software, a company owned by private equity firm Thoma Bravo, agreed to pay $4 a share in cash for Intraware, representing a 29 percent premium and totaling $27 million. The acquisition was completed on October 20, 2008, and Intraware was later acquired by Flexera Software on January 7, 2009.
Where Intraware is Today
Current Status Intraware is currently owned by Flexera Software, having been acquired on January 7, 2009. At the time of sale, Jackson believed the new owner would retain the majority of Intraware’s 60 employees.
Legacy The company was a pioneering force in electronic software delivery and management during the early internet era around 1997, surviving the dot-com crash when many similar companies failed. Its SubscribeNet platform became an industry standard for software distribution and licensing management, serving major technology companies throughout the 2000s before being absorbed into the larger Flexera Software ecosystem.