Riverdeep aims for Nasdaq listing

An offspring of the highly-successful Irish software company CBT is to mount an assault on the lucrative US school computer programmes market. Riverdeep, based in Dublin, expects to bring staff numbers to 135 over the next two years, and is aiming for a floatation on the New York Nasdaq market.

The company's chairman and main backer is Mr Pat McDonagh, the businessman who founded and guided CBT to its own flotation. Other key executives are also former CBT staffers, including the head of development, Mr Edward Wallace.

"We are not a rival to CBT, nor do we want to be," said Mr Wallace. "We are a spin-off of CBT in the sense that we wouldn't be in place but for the success of CBT. We feel we can have the same success - the size of the market is vast, there is enormous potential."

CBT concentrates on computer-based training for the corporate sector, while Riverdeep sells programmes written for schools.

In a planned assault on the US "K-12" market - the public school system which comprises 45 million children from 4 to 18 years - six senior sales staff have also been taken on. They are led by Mr Chuck Carlson, a leading salesman in the sector, who was responsible for adding $24 million (£17 million) to the revenues of a rival company.

Industry analysts anticipate American public schools will increase their information technology budgets by 62 per cent before the end of the century. Such a rate of growth would drive the educational software market from its level of more than $500 million in 1998 towards $1 billion in 2000.

"The market in the US is our sole focus, for the moment," said Mr Wallace. "However, all of our software is proprietary, and it is designed for localisation."

This structure means that programmers can easily slot out American voices and references on the multi-media software, replacing them with European languages and terms of reference.

The programme contents are overseen by education specialists with experience in the US system. Using graphics, sound and interactivity, they are designed to be of particular use to weaker students who have fallen behind their classmates, as well as for exceptional students that need extra stimulation.

The software also conforms with the standards laid out recently by the US government. This allows school boards purchasing the programmes to qualify for grants and subsidies.

Mr Wallace said the company planned to cover most of the curriculums in key US states, and would boost staff numbers from the current 50 to 135 over the next two years. The company's rapid ramp-up is geared at a flotation on the Nasdaq market in about three years, he added.