Float or sale on the cards for Cognotec?

A dozen years ago, Brian Maccaba, who was then running a fledgling company called Cognotec, was taking on the likes of Reuters in providing a financial information service.

Since then, Cognotec has had a bit of a chequered history. But few who knew the company in its infancy would have thought that 12 years later, Maccaba would be running a financial software company which this week was valued at more than $285 million (€283.5 million) after Japanese Internet group Softbank pumped in another $20 million to take its stake from 10 per cent to 17 per cent.

Now, one either buys this whole Internet/e-commerce argument that has driven many techie stocks to stratospheric levels or one doesn't.

The logic behind the extraordinary rise of public e-commerce groups like Trintech and Baltimore is that one is buying into huge future earnings. Never mind the current losses, look to the future, is the motto.

The sceptics look to some of the extraordinary valuations put on .com companies, Amazon.com for example, and believe the exponential rise in the sector is a 21st century version of the South Sea Bubble. At the moment, the technophiles are very much in the ascendancy and seem likely to stay there.

As for Cognotec, the latest $20 million from Softbank gives the group plenty of finance for its development in the short term.

But these sort of businesses tend to gobble up money, and many in the market believe it is only a matter of time before Cognotec either goes public on Nasdaq or is the subject of a trade sale.

Having Softbank on board is a major vote of confidence in Cognotec and its Autodeal software for forex markets. The Japanese bought their 28 per cent of Yahoo for $100 million and that's now worth nearly $8 billion, so they know the Internet business well.

At some stage, however, Softbank and 21 per cent shareholder Warburg Pincus will want a market for their shares even if they intend staying on as longterm shareholders.