Firepond Announces Financial Restructuring
November 14, 2008
Our team at Firepond has some great news to share with you! Firepond's majority shareholder and largest senior creditor, FP Tech Holdings, LLC ("FP Tech"), backed by Acclaim Financial Group, LLC, has advised us that FP Tech is leading a strategic financial restructuring of Firepond, Inc. We want to share this exciting news with our valued customers, partners and prospects directly. When complete, Firepond will be in an enviable position in our market space - please review the details of this effort:
- A private company. Firepond's shareholder base will be strictly institutional, lead by well funded, respected entities. These shareholders have supported us in the past-and now are continuing to support our mission.
- Debt Free. Firepond will no longer have any debt on its balance sheet (secured or otherwise).
- Substantial New Funding. The new institutional shareholder(s) will extend up to $5 million of new equity financing and a $10 million line of credit to Firepond for expansion of operations and other strategic initiatives (including acquisitions to enhance our product offering). This is a fantastic testament to Firepond's capabilities and future given the current turmoil and uncertainty in the financial markets. Few companies can expect to receive this kind of funding in the present environment.
- Lowered Operating Expenses. Going private will shear over one million from our G&A expenses per annum providing us with additional funds for operations and product enhancements. Further investments in resources that add value to our Solutions and Services delivered to our customers will continue to be a top priority.
- Firepond's commitment and guarantee for delivering unparalleled performance and customer service. This restructuring is intended to address the financial foundation of our company. At no time will this have any impact on our operations - in fact it will free up additional resources to further enhance our industry leading service and support. The Firepond OnDemand CPQ solution will continue to deliver world-class solution value, customer requested enhancements, and professional service and support to our valued global customers and partners.
Based on the tremendous progress achieved in 2008 within our engineering, operations and sales groups, the growth potential for Firepond is exciting. To enable Firepond to accommodate customer and market demand it required the executive team and our investors to make the strategic decisions necessary to achieve our goals. This restructuring permits Firepond to execute on its long-term business plan without the overhang of debt and inordinate expenses associated with a public company.
We thank you for your support of Firepond and we look forward to a long-term relationship as we move confidently into the future.
For more details, please contact:
Vince Evers, VP Strategy and Planning at (810) 320-9531
Jim Scheper, VP Sales and Marketing at (303) 378-7819