Peregrine Systems
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| Type | Subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1981 |
| Headquarters | San Diego, California, USA |
| Industry | Computer software |
| Products | ServiceCenter AssetCenter Connect.It Enterprise Discovery |
| Revenue | $191.10 million USD (2004) |
| Employees | 700 |
| Website | www.peregrine.com |
Peregrine Systems, Inc. was an enterprise software company that sold solutions in the enterprise asset management, change management, and ITIL-based IT service management markets. It was founded in 1981 and, by 2000, had achieved market dominating position in these areas. Following an accounting scandal and bankruptcy, Peregrine was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2005.
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[edit] History
Peregrine Systems was founded in 1981 in Irvine, California. The original founders and employees were Chris Cole, Gary Story, Ed Beck, Kevin Keyes and Richard Diederich. They started selling PNMS on a Series One computer while developing an MVS version.
Peregrine conducted business from offices in the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Paradyne acquired the product to implement a "side-stream" management solution to offer the market. The company was developing an MVS version of the software named PNMS II. After the initial success in marketing and selling this product, Peregrine grew to become one of the leaders in the early days of the software industry.
In the mid-80's Peregrine began relationships with venture capital firms and eventually was acquired by John Moores, founder of BMC Software in the late 1980s.
Peregrine grew its product line rapidly both organically and via acquisitions, including Harbinger Corporation and Remedy Corporation. From 1999 to 2001, the rate of acquisitions increased to almost one company a quarter. This rate of acquisition and the ever evolving company strategy caused confusion both inside the company and within the customer base, damaging the organization's ability to execute a clearly defined and consistent product roadmap.
The publicly announced ROME product convergence roadmap was the most high profile victim.
[edit] Scandal
In 2002, an accounting scandal forced Peregrine into bankruptcy and resulted in criminal indictments for 11 senior managers. None of these eleven managers included the original founding members.
In 2003, Peregrine was charged with "massive fraud"[1] by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly falsifying sales and exaggerating revenue, then covering up the scheme by hiding losses as 'goodwill costs relating to acquisitions'.[citation needed]
As a result of an audit by BMC, who was interested in buying the company, Peregrine's leadership decided to cover up their schemes while selling off their Peregrine stock. This (along with other scandals) eventually led to the demise of Arthur Andersen, who aided those executives involved in the deceptions in the cover up.[citation needed] Much like Enron, the fraud eventually led to many outside investors and Peregrine employees, who invested their earnings in Peregrine's internal stock plan, losing thousands of dollars. The entire amount of shareholder equity lost was over $4 billion dollars.[citation needed] The majority of Peregrine's illegal schemes were devised by the CFO, Matthew Gless and CEO Stephen Gardner.[citation needed] Both pleaded guilty to fraud charges. Common speculation is that federal prosecutors are using Gless's and Gardner's cooperation to build a case against former chairman of the board and San Diego Padres owner John Moores who sold over $800 million of shares during Peregrine's fraudulent period.[citation needed]
[edit] Sentences
- Stephen Gardner (former Peregrine CEO): 97 months in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons to be served at a Federal Medical Center (due to a heart condition).[1]
- Douglas Powanda (former Peregrine Exceutive Vice President for World Wide Sales): 78 months in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons. Upon request of the defense, the judge recommended an alcohol addiction program as well as a federal prison camp close to Powanda's wife's residence.
- Matthew Gless (former Peregrine CFO): 63 months in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons with a recommendation that Gless be allowed to serve his time at a Federal Prison Camp near Santa Barbara, where one of Gless's children will be attending college.
- Andrew Cahill (former Peregrine Exceutive Vice President for World Wide Sales, after Powanda): 27 months in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons.
- Jeremy Crook (former Peregrine General Manager for Europe): 27 months in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons.[2]
- Berdj J. Rassam (former Peregrine Controller): 24 months in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons.
- Steven Spitzer (former head of Peregrine's Alliance Sales Program): 12 months in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons.
- Larry Rodda (former managing director of KPMG Consulting): 6 months in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons.
- Michael Whitt (owner of Barnhill Management Group): 6 months in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons.
- Richard Nelson (former Peregrine Corporate Counsel): six months home detention and 200 hours of community service.[3]
- Gary Lenz (former Peregrine President & COO): 90 days of home detention, a $5,000 fine, 200 hours of community service, and three years of probation.
- Ilse Cappel (former Peregrine Assistant Treasurer): Probation with no restitution.
- Peter O'Brien (former Peregrine Director of Alliances): Probation.
Charges dismissed after mistrials:
- Joseph Reichner (former Peregrine Vice President of Alliances and Business Development)
- Patrick Towle (former Peregrine Revenue Accounting Manager)
- Dan Stulac (former Senior Accountant and Engagement Partner at Arthur Andersen)
[edit] Bankruptcy
Peregrine filed for Chapter 11 protection on September 23, 2002 after laying off the majority of its employees ([2]). The company sold the Remedy division of the company to BMC Software for over $300 million dollars[3] and used the funds to pay the majority of the company's debt. Peregrine exited Chapter 11 reorganization in August 2003 but the Board of Directors fired the CEO, Gary Greenfield. Retired software executive John Mutch took over and eventually he sold the company for a little more than two times revenue to HP.
[edit] Sale to HP
Hewlett Packard acquired Peregrine Systems in 2005 for $425 million.[4] The Peregrine products are now sold under the HP Business Technology Optimization (BTO) Software brand and is part of the HP Software Global Business Unit.
[edit] Products
- AssetCenter - IT Enterprise asset management software (acquired from Apsylog)
- ServiceCenter - ITIL-enabled IT service management software (developed internally, flagship product)
- Connect-It - Data integration tool (part of Apsylog technology)
- Enterprise Discovery - Discovery and Inventory tool (acquired from fPrint (UK) Ltd and Loran Technologies)
- Knowlix - Knowledge management application (acquired from Knowlix)
- Get-Services - Web based application providing employees with self service access to the Help Desk. Front-end to ServiceCenter.
- Get-Resources - Web based application providing employees with self service access to a request management system. Front-end to ServiceCenter or AssetCenter.
- Get-Answers - Web based knowledge management application developed from Knowlix
- FacilityCenter - CAFM product divested to Tririga during financial collapse (acquired from Span FM).
- FacilityCenter Reserve - Room Booking system divested to Tririga during Financial collapse (acquired from Critical Path).
- Fleet Anywhere - Company vehicle fleet management software divested during 2003 to Maximus (acquired from Prototype).
- Harbinger.Net - EDI VAN, Data Transformation & EDI over Internet provider sold to Golden Gate Capital during financial collapse (acquired from Harbinger)
- Extricity - e-commerce Business Process Management software sold to Golden gate Capital during Financial Collapse (acquired from Extricity)
- Remedy ARS - Forms based application development environment and ITSM applications, sold to BMC during financial collapse (acquired from Remedy Corp).
- TRU - Telecoms based product line, sold to Symphony Services Corp (acquired from Telco Research)
- Xanadu - Appliance based discovery and service management offering targeted at the SME (Small to Medium Enterprise) market, internally developed based upon products from Loran (Network Discovery) and Peregrine (Service Center), product cancelled following poor sales performance.
- Tivoli ServiceDesk - IT Service Management product, end of lifed immediately after acquisition in order to convert customer base to ServiceCenter (acquired from IBM)
[edit] Logo
The company logo was first used in March 2001 to illustrate Peregrine Systems expansion into full business to business process management (this change to core strategy followed the acquisitions of the B2B companies Harbinger and Extricity). The logo was accompanied at the launch with the tagline 'Frictionless Business' symbolizing the removal of inefficiency and friction from business processes, the logo was subsequently used as inspiration for the rebrand of the internal serviceDesk at Peregrine under the name 'Frisbee'.
