Predictions that small companies will also be hit by the market crisis and uncertainty on the markets have been rife for some time. It now appears that companies, such as Olive Software Inc. are beginning to feel the impact of this.
Sources inform ''Globes'' that Olive recently fired about one quarter of its staff, (20 employees), leaving 75. At the same time, the company has raised $5 million, after receiving a mezzanine loan a year ago from UK venture fund Blue Crest Capital. According to IVC Online data, Olive has raised a total of $31 million to date, including the current funds, from Pitango Venture Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Elbit Medical Imaging (Nasdaq: EMITF; TASE: EMIT), which invested in it in the latter half of 200o.
Olive, which was founded in 1999 by president Yoni Stern, has developed a platform called XAP, which enables various types of files (microfilms, paper, or electronic files) to be merged and presented in XML format. This platform enables the viewing of newspaper pages in their original format, similar to PDF.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 1, 2008
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