American software start-ups may now have a sure-fire way into the European market thanks to a new French vehicle called Ariana SA. Modelled – even if it doesn’t know it – on the Lionel Singer Pty Ltd operation in Sydney, Australia, the Paris company’s mission is to take a lot of the risk and expense out of setting up in Europe by establishing the American firm’s subsidiaries itself. It will then focus on direct, value-added reseller and systems integrator sales of the US product to large and medium accounts, take the organisation through the incubation process and sell the subsidiary back to the US company for cash or shares in three years’ time. Ariana is the brainchild of Roger Haddad, who previously founded Metrologie International SA, probably one of the most successful value added hardware and software distribution networks ever created in Europe, with sales worth some $1,000m in 1990. He estimates he can handle 10 US concerns in the next five years and is particularly interested in partnering with leading firms, ready to ship beta-tested product, in client-server software, software tools for business applications, X-terminal and workstation software, wireless networks and software for networking and telecommunications. It is looking for products with a worldwide sales potential of $30m to $100m in three to five years. Ariana, initially started in France, has already corraled one partner, the firm IXI Ltd, and expects to sign three this year including Network Computing Devices Inc, first for its PC XView product and later for its full terminal line. In the com ing months it will expand out into Germany, Switzerland and the UK as a network of independently owned operations. To start, Ariana will demand an exclusive distribution contract, co-operative advertising funds and a 50% royalty. It will be paid a fee for its various operating services estimated at between $15,000 and $50,000 per unit per country plus a 5% sales commission at transfer cost. A unit should be up and running in three to six months with sales of $1m forecast for the first year. Profitability is forecast for the fourth quarter. Buying back the subsidiary will cost the value of sales over the previous 12 months, multiplied by a scaling factor of between 0.75 and 1.5. Afterwards Ariana could remain the unit’s distributor. Ariana’s board includes Bernard Giroud, who started Intel France in 1971 and left the company last year as a corporate vice-president to become a venture capitalist; Gerard Yon, formerly sales and marketing manager of Chorus Systemes SA, and now president of VST SA, a start-up in electronic document management, and Pascal LeVasseur, who is technical director of Dell France.
