Go forward, Hubwoo!!!

I think we can all recognize that both cc-hubwoo and IBX are delivering solutions globally to international corporations. As far as international reach goes, I believe our customers speak for themselves.

IBX ambition is to service companies globally and to support them in transforming their purchasing functions by providing scalable on demand services, managed procurement and sourcing services as well as deep purchasing competence.

This is a strategy which has worked well for us, and the fact is that IBX has had a 20 percent plus underlying organic growth over several years. 2007 proved to be the most successful year in IBX history; revenues increased by app 28% (to close to EUR 34 million, unaudited), over 70 percent of which stems from our SaaS-services. Over the same period IBX profitability rose to EUR 4,4 million. (For more information see: http://www.ibxeurope.com/?id=3339).

I suppose I could refer to cc-hubwoo as a local French niche player in the supplier network domain, but it is certainly not in any ones interest to start such a debate. I prefer to let the figures speak for themselves.

Peter Lageson

Senior Vice President and co-founder, IBX Group AB

I appreciated your comment, and as soon as I saw it, I did put the post on hold to double-check the suspected-wrong forecasted-revenue I referred to and that I mentioned in a post mid 2007 while comparing IBX ans cc-hubwoo figures. I saw – as far as I can remember – this figure in a corporate presentation online on the web (like this one written in 2005, mentioning 39M€ forecast in 2005 and 20-30% minimum growth per year).

However, I browsed the net and your website in-and-out unsuccessfully.
Consequently, willing to be 100% fact-based:
- I crossed out my remarks about it,
- I hereby acknowledge that cc-hubwoo was officially targetting full profitability in 2007 as top priority.

Considering your other remarks about comparing IBX and cc-Hubwoo, I would like to add that:
- I underlined in former posts their difference in geographical and business model approach,
- I still believe that IBX and cc-hubwoo are comparable from several perspectives: both are using SAP technology for eProcurement, both are e-marketplaces with eProcurement and eSourcing capabilities, both have a SaaS and Professional services offering, and finally annual revenue of both companies is comparable.
- Although Ariba and cc-hubwoo are both publicly quoted companies and on the same business market (Spend management solution provider: eProc, eSourcing, Prof. Services and Supplier Network), their size difference (Ariba generated $301Millions in 2007 while cc-hubwoo weighted 33M€) is so important that I don’t see comparable business issues and ways to address them (although I read carefully your POV: http://www.cc-hubwoo.com/pdf/finance/06_09_14_pres_en.pdf) …unless SAP business in the purchasing area shall be taken in cc-hubwoo’s business equation.

Finally, dont get me wrong: I am simply raising the fact that I don’t see the ‘strong growth platform’ that cc-hubwoo is looking after to achieve its ambition, unless getting closer to SAP.

I’ll be sincerely happy to meet you to exchange further on this topic if it could be of any value for you.

Jean-Philippe

I would be interested to see where the forecast of €44M revenues for 2007 comes from. The only forecast that I am aware of that cc-h made to the market (and I was the CFO so I might know something about this) was on of full profitability for the year 2007.

cc-hubwoo only has one comparable competitor – Ariba, the only other publicly quoted company in our space. They have still never declared a profit. Their SaaS revenues were about double ours in Q4 (we were $9M, them €20); and there revenues have steadily declined over the last quarters and years.

So you want to compare us to IBX. What is their SaaS revenue? Do you know? Are you comparing a global SaaS company with a niche Scandinavian services company? Do you know the difference?

cc-hubwoo has faced, and will continue to face, considerable challenges. But you haven’t put your finger on any of them.

If you do not object to some facts interfering with your opinions, why not come down to Paris to meet me and acquire some?

Yours very sincerely
Mark Williams
CEO, cc-hubwoo