Introductions by Doug Blair/Quick Review by Dan Bloom

Three founders, Larry Garlick, Dave Mahler, and Doug Mueller

In part 1 of this article I discussed the backgrounds of the Remedy founders, how they came together to build a successful customer-centric company, and how well business was doing going into the late 1990′s.

Back in 1991, before the first version of the AR System was released, Peregrine Software, led by John J. Moores made a buyout offer – mostly in attempt to keep the AR System off the market. However, as during most of Remedy Corporation’s existence, the board saw greater opportunity in continuing Remedy’s “organic growth” and refused the offer.

Meanwhile, anyone who was around in 2001 remembers how the focus was on growth, not profitability. And few companies were growing faster – a sustained 25% per year – than Peregrine Systems. (This, despite a general slowdown in the industry, that was on it’s way to becoming the the dot-com meltdown.)

But in 2001 Moores made another offer, one that Garlick and the board couldn’t (legally) refuse. At $1.2 billion in cash and stock Moores was almost doubling the company’s valuation.

It was a crazy offer, but Remedy was having their share of difficulty. They had their first unprofitable quarter during this time and suffered through a painful round of layoffs. And Garlick himself had been looking for his own replacement for six months.

No one was happy with the deal, but Remedy Corporation became part of Peregrine Software on June 11, 2001. Larry Garlick stayed on as a member of the board of directors to help protect the interests of Remedy customers, and employees.

Peregrine then went on to become a poster-child for the meltdown, loosing more that $400 million in shareholder equity with 15 people indicted, and 11 serving jail time.

In late 2002 as part of the bankruptcy proceedings, Remedy was sold to BMC Software for $355 million.

In an odd bit of irony, it turns out that John J. Moores was one of the original founders of BMC Software.

Introductions by Doug Blair/Quick Review by Dan Bloom

Three founders: Larry Garlick, Dave Mahler, and Doug Mueller

Larry Garlick had history working for companies like Xerox and Sun during the 1970′s & 1980′s, while Dan & Doug came from HP. When HP relocated some of their offices Dave & Doug left the company.

Although they didn’t know each other, Larry & Dave were simultaneously forming similar ideas to break the existing vendor-software-on-vendor-hardware model of the time. There were looking to create, “a family of applications to manage network & systems, across multiple vendor platforms.” (LG).

Dave & Larry met at InterOp in the late 1980′s when a VC – hearing the similarity of their ideas – suggested they get together. Larry asked hard questions then, and continues to do so today.

Together, the 3 set out to “solve existing problems with deployable technology” (DM) and started by asking technology leaders about their biggest pain points. Two issues rose to the top of the list: Event Correlation & Help Desk. Event correlation was “too hard” according to Doug Mueller, so they choose to pursue the Help Desk space.

Remedy Corporation was formed in 1990 and they spent $900 to have the logo/bug designed. They had all come from big companies and were very interested in creating a culture that was very different. Customer focus and a bias for action (as opposed to inaction) were their basic tenants. Additionally, they encouraged a culture which:

* Had no respect for authority.
* Managed to keep fun everything fun.

Easy to say, hard to do.

With the early version of the AR System being sold, everyone in the company was considered a sales person. The box of software & documentation cost $100.00 and was made possible by the fact that the installation was easy and could be performed by anyone, including on Unix-based systems (very unusual for the time). This ease of install became a “big trust factor” with their core customers, indeed the founders wanted ARS to be a “virus” within IT organizations that became difficult to remove once it was in place.

Remedy Corporation went public in 1995 and in 1996, there was an article in Newsweek featuring Larry’s picture. There were a number of companies interested in buy Remedy Corp. during this time, but “organic Remedy” always had a higher potential ROI, so they were never seriously pursued.

Until 2001 came along…

End of Part 1

The braintrust behind Remedy Corporation & ARS. #wwrug

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First there was Kroger reporting user data had been stolen.  Now it’s Robert Half technologies chiming in:

Dear Valued Customer, Today we were informed by Epsilon Interactive, our national email service provider, that your email address was exposed due to unauthorized access of their system. Robert Half uses Epsilon to send marketing and service emails on our behalf. We deeply regret this has taken place and any inconvenience this may have caused you. We take your privacy very seriously, and we will continue to work diligently to protect your personal information. We were advised by Epsilon that the information that was obtained was limited to email addresses only. Please note, it is possible you may receive spam email messages as a result. We want to urge you to be cautious when opening links or attachments from unknown third parties. We ask that you remain alert to any unusual or suspicious emails. As always, if you have any questions, or need any additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us at customersecurity@rhi.com. Sincerely, Robert Half Customer Care Robert Half Finance & Accounting Robert Half Management Resources Robert Half Legal Robert Half Technology The Creative Group