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Kiodex Appoints Two New Members to Senior Management
11/14/2000 NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--November 14, 2000-- Kiodex Inc., a provider of technology-based trading and risk-management solutions for the commodities markets, recently added two new members to its senior management team: Raj Vaswani, Vice President and General Counsel and Thomas Farley, Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Vaswani will develop and manage the company's legal and regulatory strategies. Mr. Farley will manage the company's finance and accounting functions. "Having worked with countless high-flying technology companies, Kiodex impresses me as being the cream of the crop," said Vaswani. " Kiodex is without peer in its vision to deliver risk management and trading services to the marketplace." Raj Vaswani comes to Kiodex from Morrison & Foerster LLP in New York, one of the leading new-media law firms, where he was an attorney in the Technology Transactions Group and specialized in corporate and intellectual property transactions for high-technology companies, including public equity offerings, mergers and acquisitions, and software-development transactions. Recently profiled in the New York Law Journal, Mr. Vaswani is a well-regarded attorney in the field of new media and has authored numerous articles regarding the legal aspects of emerging high-technology businesses. Thomas Farley joins Kiodex from Gryphon Investors, an investment firm specializing in leveraged acquisitions of and growth equity investments in high-growth, middle-market companies. Mr. Farley found and evaluated acquisition candidates, executed transactions, monitored investment portfolios, and directly supplemented the management of several portfolio companies. Previously, Mr. Farley worked for Montgomery Securities (now Banc of America Securities) where he was a corporate finance investment banker advising high-growth middle- and large-market companies. " Kiodex compares favorably to the many early-stage technology companies that I worked with previously," noted Farley. "The company's position as a nuts-and-bolts technology provider with a proprietary solution and a superb management team made my decision to join the company an easy one." "We are thrilled at these two new additions to our management team at Kiodex . Their decision to join us marks our transition to a new stage of growth," stated R. Martin Chavez, CEO. "The high-tech expertise Mr. Vaswani gained while at Morrison & Foerster makes him the ideal leader of our legal and regulatory strategies; moreover, Raj has been with us as outside counsel since the inception of Kiodex . Tom, with his hands-on experience at Gryphon's portfolio companies, will plan our path to profitability and embed planning, budgeting, and forecasting into our DNA at Kiodex ." _____________________________________________________________________ Web-based CHEMCONNECT corrals top U.S. petrochemical broker 11/13/2000 Oxy-Fuel News © 2000 Phillips Business Information, Inc. The world's largest Internet-based exchange for petrochemicals and industrial gases, ChemConnect Inc., snapped up leading traditional U.S. brokerage firm, Universal Chemical Brokerage Ltd. (UCB) last week. At the same time, ChemConnect announced the launch of its World Chemical Exchange commodities trading floor. Plans are to integrate New York-based UCB?a dominant player in U.S. spot market petrochemical brokering that places traditional broker trades by phone?with ChemConnect's Internet trading service. The move will enable UCB to help clients online or offline on the new Commodities Floor of the World Chemical Exchange, allowing them to post their own buy or sell offers either electronically or offline through brokers. The new Commodities Floor will allow pre-qualified members to buy, sell and exchange standard high volume commodity products over the Internet in real time through trading hubs in Antwerp-Rotterdam, Singapore and Houston. Established trading pits include methanol and MTBE as well as several other petrochemicals. The Commodities Floor offers more than $1 billion/yr in notional sales value, while the addition of UCB immediately gives the floor added trading liquidity for petrochemicals, said the company. "ChemConnect intends to further expand its capacity, reach and services to include the development of financial derivatives market." _________________________________________________________ ORION POWER HOLDINGS, INC. (ORN) Prices 27.50 Million Shares at $20.00 http://www.ipo.com/ipoinfo/profile.asp?p=IPO&;c=0001120236 Orion Power Holdings Inc. is an electric power generating company operating in the United States. Lead Managed By: Goldman, Sachs & Co. ________________________________________________________________ o Energy Site SmartEnergy Secures $15 Million in Series A BOSTON -- SmartEnergy, which sells and markets electricity and natural gas, and operates a Web-based customer services for its energy customers, said it has secured $15 million in its Series A round of funding. The funding was provided by Alliant Energy, WPS Resource Corporation, Avian Securities, Dexia Ventures, KBC bank, Trust Capital, Proseed Capital Holdings, Technoledge Ventures, and individual investors. An unnamed asset bank based in Belgium also participated in the round. The company said it will use the funds for working capital. http://www.smartenergy.com/ _____________________________________________ GERMANY: IDS wins Internet marketplace transport deal. 11/14/2000 Reuters English News Service (C) Reuters Limited 2000. FRANKFURT, Nov 14 (Reuters) - German transport group IDS Logistik said it has been chosen as exclusive general cargo transport partner for the new plastics industry Internet marketplace "portax.com". Portax.com began trading in raw materials, semi-finished products, machinery and services for the plastics industry in September this year, IDS said in a statement. Since the start of November, online buyers can order transport services from IDS after completing their acquisition, it added. IDS, a co-operation grouping of medium-sized German freight forwarders, offers Germany-wide road transport of general cargo shipments within 24 hours as well as European distribution through a network of partners. ________________________________________________________ Online chemicals 10/23/2000 Chemical Business NewsBase: European Chemical News An additional 14 chemical companies have formerly signed investment agreements with Elemica, the online chemicals marketplace launched by eight leading chemical companies in May 2000. The signees are: Celanese, ChemCentral, Ciba Specialty Chemicals, DegussaHuls, DSM, Millennium Chemicals, Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Rhodia, Solvay, Stinnes, Sumitomo, and Vopak. ______________________________________________________ NetworkOil's SurplusExchange sets fast pace HOUSTON, Nov. 13 (LocalBusiness.com) -- NetworkOil Inc. today announced its Surplus Exchange has sold $20 million worth of oilfield equipment since it was launched three months ago, which an analyst from the Yankee Group calls a "pretty good" volume for the energy exchange arena. "NetworkOil is a pretty big player in its niche market," Randall Nottingham, senior analyst of the Yankee Group's energy and Internet strategies practice, told LocalBusiness.com during a telephone interview from his Boston office today. The Yankee Group is a technology research and consulting service. He estimated a market "in the hundreds of millions of dollars" annually for the auctioning of used or surplus industrial equipment, adding that he had no figures available on the size of the market specifically for the oil and gas industry. The NetworkOil Surplus Exchange uses the Internet to enhance market liquidity for the sellers of surplus equipment in the oil and natural gas industry. It also exposes the equipment to potential buyers globally, giving them better knowledge of what is available on the market, Nottingham said. "Sellers are reaching more buyers through the SurplusExchange and maximizing the realized value of their assets," Stuart Page, NetworkOil CEO said in a news release. "NetworkOil is addressing business needs, and the oil and gas industry is responding." Nottingham said NetworkOil uses both the Internet auction and the traditional auction in its business model. "It's not the E-Bay model of showing a picture and expecting people to bid on it." He praised Network Oil's acquisition in August of the San Antonio-based Premier Auctioneers International. Since then, NetworkOil and Premier Auctioneers have conducted eight live call-out auctions and four Internet auctions. The SurplusExchange currently lists more than $50 million of oilfield equipment. Twenty sales professions work directly with sellers to take an inventory of the equipment and conduct appraisals, and they also conduct equipment searchers for buyers. "Selling equipment through NetworkOil Surplus Exchange exceeded our expectations," said David Sims, materials manager of Kerr-McGee Corp. in Dallas. "NetworkOil gave us exposure to a whole new set of buyers who had an aggressive interest in our pumping units." NetworkOil is an independent e-commerce marketplace for new and used petroleum equipment. Thirty-two oil and gas companies and four major venture capital firms have invested in the company. ____________________________________________________- Two local firms in marketing pact Nov 14, 2000 02:06 PM ET HOUSTON, Nov. 14 (LocalBusiness.com) -- Two local online sites focusing on the energy industry today said they have signed a joint marketing to enlarge their offerings and expand audiences. The Oil & Gas Journal Exchange's Global Equipment Exchange, a trading exchange for new and used equipment, said it will work with FlashFind Corp., which offers technical operational, repair and safety information at its site. "In many cases manuals and other product documentation are lost during the life of the equipment," said Dehorah Peppers, chairman of FlashFind. Peppers said Oil & Gas Journal Exchange customers will be able to buy equipment and "be sure that they will have access to all the documentation needed to operate and maintain it." Founded in 1997, FlashFind also provides links to a number of ecommerce and procurement systems and research services. For Oil & Gas Exchange, the agreement simply increases the amount of content available to customers shopping for equipment. Global Equipment Exchange, formerly Global Logistics Partners, was acquired by San Mateo, Calif.-based pennNET in March. The company has been trading new and surplus oilfield and electric power equipment since 1991. PennNET was created to electronically leverage the resources of Tulsa, Okla.-based PennWell Corp. ___________________________________________________ B2eMarkets, EqualFooting.com Enter Alliance 11/13/2000 ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 2000 NOV 13 (NB). E-sourcing software provider B2eMarkets Inc. today said a joint marketing and sales agreement with online business-to-business (B2B) marketplace EqualFooting.com will expand both companies' technologies. Orville Bailey, CEO and co-founder of B2eMarkets, said in a statement that providing customers access to EqualFooting.com's marketplace will give them the means to reduce costs on materials necessary to their businesses. Jim Fox, CEO of EqualFooting.com added that the two companies offer complimentary, proprietary technologies that can be easily integrated. He said the full suite of services will save users time and money, allowing them to quickly realize a valuable return on their investment. Rockville, Md.-based B2eMarkets' Web-enabled software enables procurement professionals to electronically research, evaluate, plan and negotiate the lowest total cost of ownership for goods and services. Sterling, Va.-based EqualFooting.com's online marketplace and request for quote (RFQ) mechanism aggregate the buying power of many companies to achieve the best possible cost savings for industrial supplies and equipment. Reported by Washtech.com, http://www.washtech.com . ________________________________________________ o Apax Merges European and Israeli Units, Pledges $600 Million TEL AVIV -- Global private equity firm Apax Partners, which includes Particof & Co. in the U.S., said Apax Israel and Apax Partners in Europe will merge and will invest $600 million in Israeli companies over the next three years. The company said it would focus its investments in Israel on companies in the telecom, IT, and healthcare sectors. Apax Partners said it invested $100 million in ten Israeli companies within the last 6 months. The firm's portfolio companies include CommTouch, FundTech, Compugen, EZChip Technologies, and TdSoft. http://www.apax.com/ _____________________________________________ o Cisco Acquires Radiata, Wireless Chip Firm, For $295 Million SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Cisco Systems said it acquired Radiata, a California and Sydney, Australia-based company which develops chipsets for high-speed wireless networks, for $295 million in stock. Cisco holds an 11% stake in the company through a Series A investment made in April. Broadcom also invested in Radiata. The 53 employees that comprise Radiata's staff will join a newly formed Cisco business unit, the wireless networking business unit of the Ethernet access group. Radiata's baseband processor and radio chip products will be integrated into Cisco's family of Aironet wireless LAN products. http://www.cisco.com/ http://www.radiata.com/ __________________________________________________ o Currency Services Firm E4X Completes $6 Million Round One NEW YORK -- E4X, a provider of services that enable Internet merchants to sell online in multiple currencies, said it completed a $6 million first round of financing led by Polaris Venture Capital, along with Chase Capital Partners. Delta-Ventures also participated in the round. The company will use the new funds to expand sales and marketing and recruitment. http://www.e4x.com/ _____________________________________________ o Network Storage Firm StorageApps Gets $50 Million Round Two BRIDGEWATER, N.J. -- StorageApps, a provider of network storage appliances and software applications, said it has raised $50 million in its second round of funding led by Bowman Capital. Funding was also provided by Bessemer Trust, Dell Ventures, Enron Broadband Services, LSI Logic Storage Systems, and StorageNetworks. StorageApps, which previously received funding from The Blackstone Group and Soros, said the round brings the total amount invested in the company to $75 million. The new funds will go to support general operating costs. http://www.storageapps.com/ _____________________________________________ o Optical Networking Firm Blaze Gets $40 Million in Round Two DUBLIN, Calif. -- Blaze Network Products, an optical networking firm that develops WDM technologies for gigabit Ethernet applications, said it raised $40 million in its second round of funding. Investors were: Sands Brothers & Co., Kalkhoven, Pettit and Levin Ventures, Crown Advisors, GTG Ventures, Oppenheimer Fund, Pyramid Technology Investors, SOG Group, the Wit SoundView Photonics Fund, and Wit SoundView Ventures. Previous investors Dynafund Ventures, Intel Capital, Vanguard Venture Partners and Wasserstein Adelson Ventures also participated. General partners from Sands Brothers & Co., and Kalkhoven, Pettit and Levin will join the board of directors. The company will use the funds to expand its manufacturing capability. http://www.blazenp.com/ _____________________________________________ o Wireless Firm Telespree Closes $19 Million Second Round SAN FRANCISCO -- Telespree, which develops prepaid wireless platforms for wireless carriers, said it has raised $19 million in its second round of financing. The round was led by previous investor Lucent Venture Partners. Newbury Ventures and Koor Venture Capital along with previous investors Stanford University, London Merchant Securities, and Thompson Clive International Venture Capital also participated. Hassan Parsa, a partner at Lucent Venture Partners, will join Telespree's board as its fifth member. Telespree said it will use the funds to expand technology development and for marketing. http://www.telespree.com/ _____________________________________________ o Supply Chain Info Firm SupplyEdge Has $11 Million Round Two LOS ANGELES -- SupplyEdge, a supply chain information services, said it has secured $11 million in its second round of funding from AsiaTech Ventures and Lucent Ventures Partners. Previous investors Investment Group of Santa Barbara and Carlifornia Technology Ventures also joined round. The company said it will use the funds to continue corporate development. Peter Chu of AsiaTech and Maureen Lawrence of Lucent Venture Partners will take seats on the company's board. http://www.supplyedge.com/ _____________________________________________ o Broadband Firm Equator Lands $40 Million in Fourth Round CAMPBELL, Calif. -- Equator Technologies, which provides programmable broadband signal processors, said it has raised over $40 million in its fourth round of funding led by Ironside Venture Partners. The round also included MMC Capital, Orix USA, and Quest Management. Previous investors Jafco America Ventures, InveStar Capital, and Nomura International also participated in the round. Equator Technologies said it expects a second closing within the next few weeks to conclude a total of more than $50 million for the round. The company said it will use the funds to accelerate new product development and increase its investments in global operations, infrastructure, technology development, sales and marketing, and customer support. http://www.equator.com/ _____________________________________________
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