Intel Corp yesterday dipped into its IA-64 Fund and invested in Iona Technologies, a Dublin, Ireland-based software company that specializes in integrating web-based front office applications with legacy back office systems. The chipmaker wouldn’t say the size of the investment but a spokesperson for Iona said that Intel had purchased 200,000 shares in the company. Based on Iona’s closing price of $18.125 on Thursday, that values the investment at around $3.63m.
A spokesperson said the investment would be used to support ongoing research, development and marketing of its iPortal Suite for Intel’s upcoming IA/64, 64-bit products. Iona’s iPortal Suite includes four separate products: iPortal Application Server, iPortal Integration Server, iPortal Server, and Orbix 2000. The spokesperson said Iona’s technology enables companies to develop personalized portal interfaces to their e-commerce sites and integrate those web-facing applications with back end data from Unix and NT systems. While other integration vendors focus on either the front or back office, Iona claims its technology is unique because it provides an end-to-end integration offering that encompasses both.
The move is part of Intel’s push to get as many vendors signed up to its IA-64 platform as possible before the launch of the processor next year. The $250m fund was set up by Intel to invest in emerging technologies that it wants to work on its 64-bit servers. Although Intel manages the fund, it also includes the likes of Compaq, Dell, HP, Intel, NEC, and SGI as co-investors.
