Peregrine Returns From Chapter 11Peregrine Returns From Chapter 11

Software maker Peregrine Systems Inc. completed its journey from the financial abyss Thursday, becoming, it claims, the first public software company to reorganize successfully under Chapter 11. Peregrine plans to focus on developing and selling its core asset- and service-management applications, having divested itself of derivative business ventures such as help-desk software and trucking fleet-management services.

Peregrine was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection 11 months ago after the Securities and Exchange Commission determined the company would have to restate financial results for 11 quarters in fiscal years 2000, 2001, and 2002, reducing reported revenue of $1.3 billion by $509 million.

During the past year, Peregrine has cut 80% of its staff and restructured to focus on its core ServiceCenter and AssetCenter software products, says CEO Gary Greenfield, who in June 2002 replaced former Peregrine chairman and CEO Steve Gardner. The 20-year-old company also replaced its board with a new crop that Thursday took the reigns.

Peregrine has some good products that help companies track their assets, Forrester analyst David Friedlander says. "It's not simply tracking what you have deployed but rather what contracts you have attached to [a piece of hardware or software], when it comes off lease, and who the service providers are for a given asset." Now, Friedlander says, the company can concentrate on integrating its products with each other and with third-party software such as network-management frameworks and purchasing systems.