Event
Summary
On July 26, 2000, Agilera, an application service provider (ASP), announced
the signing of a definitive agreement for $80 million in its second equity
financing. Agilera will use the financing to fuel the expansion of the
company's general operations, including the development of its operations
centers and the expansion of its business model.
Agilera's
second equity financing was led by First Union Capital Partners LLC, with
other first-time investors Providence Equity Partners, Lonetree Partners
and C.E. Unterberg,Towbin. Existing investors Verio Inc. (Nasdaq: VRIO),
and Centennial Ventures, demonstrated their continued belief in and commitment
to the company by increasing their respective investments, with their
combined contribution totaling more than half of the $80 million.
Upon
the closing of this round of financing, Verio, will be the company's largest
investor, having invested a total of $50 million in Agilera. Agilera-founder
CIBER, Inc. (NYSE: CBR), was also instrumental in facilitating Agilera's
second equity financing. Agilera also welcomes David Scanlan of First
Union Capital Partners to the Agilera Board of Directors.
Agilera's
equity financing will close when Hart-Scott-Rodino approval is received.
Market
Impact
Agilera is a pure-play application service provider (ASP) that provides
a flexible hosting platform for IT and e-business operations. Unlike competitors
USinternetworking and Interliant, which are public, Agilera is dependent
on investor capital to sustain its growth.
As
detailed in our recent vendor note, "Agilera:
Making e-Business Agile" a critical requirement for Agilera will be
the successful execution of a strong brand campaign. With the combined
resources of Ciber and Verio as well as partnerships with Commerce One,
Ariba, Lawson, Siebel and others, their portfolio is impressive. Success,
however, will be determined by their ability to market and deliver their
services. With the influx of capital, and a pending acquisition of Verio
by Japan's NTT corporation, we anticipate a 75% degree of success.
User
Recommendations
Users considering outsourced solutions may benefit from Agilera's recent
developments. With ample operating capital users may expect to see new
Agilera data centers. With a market burgeoning with ASP offerings users
have several choices. Further, several ASP's (Managed Ops.com, Infinium,
Agilera, AT&T and many more) are creating sizable data centers. The data
facilities offer state-of-the-art connectivity, which is positive for
users. It also means ASP's are anxious to fill their server farms quickly.
Obviously, there is much more to the relationship, but an empty data center
represents a negotiation point worth exploiting.