Troubled Baan 'a target for takeover'

Struggling software vendor Baan suffered another body blow last week, as the prospect of losing its prized blue-chip status on the Amsterdam stock exchange coincided with its share price slumping to a new five-year low.

The enterprise resource planning (ERP) specialist has been given four weeks to raise shareholder equity from its current level of $9m (£5.5m) or face suspension from the blue-chip index of the Dutch stock exchange.

Katrina Roche, Baan's worldwide marketing director, told Computing that going public with the threat had been a mutual decision between Baan and the Dutch financial authorities.

"There has been a lot of speculation about what our current equity situation is," she said. "It was mutually agreed that we should clear that up."

Baan needs to achieve $50m (£30m) in equity to satisfy both the stock exchange and backer Fletcher International. It has hired merchant banker Lazard Freres to help sell off more parts of the company. Options include its Aurum customer relationship management software unit and the Cap Logistics scheduling and planning software businesses.

Some now openly doubt wheher Baan has a future. "Baan is a prime target for takeover," said Mike Thompson, research director at analyst firm Butler Group. "Its viability in the ERP market is pretty unsustainable." "Unfortunately, Baan's internal problems have coincided with the external problems of ERP vendors as a whole. The main concern has to be for the ongoing support of the customer base," he said.