Crossbeam Systems of Boxborough has worldwide appeal
Crossbeam Systems Inc. is a company-in-waiting - for the stock market to stabilize so it can make a run at going public.
A provider of computer network security systems, Crossbeam is programmed to make an initial public offering by year's end or as soon as the market becomes less volatile, chief executive Peter L. Fiore said during a recent interview at the company's headquarters off Central Street in Boxborough.
"In continuing to build the company, our biggest challenge is how to increase [annual] revenues from more than $55 million currently to, say, $250 million, " said Fiore, 50. And that means leveraging additional capital that a stock offering would bring, he said.
If there is one person who can be counted on to make the right moves at the right time, it's Fiore, said Rick Ganong, a partner of Tudor Investment Corp. of Boston, one of eight venture-capital firms that has backed Crossbeam since its inception in March 2000.
"Peter is battle-tested, and, as the numbers show, the company's software and hardware products are being well received," Ganong said, adding that Tudor has invested $10 million in Crossbeam. In all, Crossbeam has raised some $100 million in venture capital, said Fiore, who lives in Acton.
Fiore was named chief executive last June, replacing Peter George, who left to explore other opportunities in the industry. Before joining Crossbeam, Fiore had helped Westborough's
Crossbeam has 230 employees, 170 of them in Boxborough, the remainder around the world. It was founded in Concord eight years ago by three entrepreneurs: Throop Wilder, Mike Akerman, and Steve Justus. Wilder, 50, and Akerman, 46, remain with Crossbeam as vice president of corporate strategy and director of advanced development, respectively, while Justus, 44, is living in Portland, Ore.
The initial notion, which proved to be accurate, was that computer hardware and software could be developed that would consolidate the number of systems needed to safeguard a commercial customer's data, said Wilder, a Lincoln resident.
"After 9/11, the need for advanced security technologies became a top priority of corporate chief information officers, and that, of course, helped our cause," Wilder said.
One of the first Crossbeam customers five years ago was The Weather Channel, based in Atlanta. "We first contacted Crossbeam because we had a firewall that needed more redundancy and more capacity," said John Penrod, the channel's chief information security officer. "Now, thanks to Crossbeam's efforts, we are able to protect everything on the corporate side, ranging from data going to customers to Internet access. The company has been of tremendous help to us."
Today, Crossbeam has some 800 customers worldwide, including all the major telecommunications carriers, Wilder and Fiore said. The company's two product lines are priced between $125,000 and $1 million, depending on how the equipment is deployed, they said. Forty-five percent of annual sales are in North America, 45 percent are in Europe, and 10 percent are in the Asia-Pacific rim, Fiore said.
The software and hardware are developed in Boxborough, and the hardware is produced by two contract manufacturers, Fiore said. Among Crossbeam's competitors, he said, are
Cisco and Juniper are competitive opponents, but "Crossbeam marries a high-speed platform with the best security software, giving customers a number of options - like a food court," said Jon Oltsik, a senior analyst with Milford-based Enterprise Strategy Group.
While Crossbeam's plans to go public are on the back burner, the company nonetheless is ramping up its search for additional engineers and salespeople, Fiore said.
"If everything goes as we hope it will," he said, "we'll be hiring 80 people this year."
