Or Call (310) 325-4000

If the 1990’s were the decade of the IPO, the 2000’s appear likely to become the decade of Mergers and Acquisitions.

With the public markets unsettled, VCs re-defining their investment strategies, and the burdensome requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley making the cost and effort required to file an IPO more than many companies can bear, Corporate Investments and Strategic Alliances may present a better financing opportunity, and offer the most viable exit strategy for entrepreneurs and fast-growing technology companies.

Is your company the kind of alliance partner or strategic investment that major corporations are looking for?

Is a corporate investment a better strategy for your company than venture capital or other forms of financing?

Join us on August 18th as our panel of corporate decision-makers answers these questions, and discusses the New World Order for Corporate Investments and Strategic Alliances.

Learn:

• What corporations are looking for from strategic partners and strategic investments
• What kinds of terms to expect, and how long it takes to secure them
• How to effectively target corporations, and improve the odds of closing a deal
• What types of alliances are corporations entering into today
• How to position your company to make it a desirable business partner for corporations
• What the major differences are between corporate investments and venture capital funding
• The pros and cons of getting involved with a corporate partner

You’ll hear first-hand from executives making deals today for major corporations in the technology industry, and have an opportunity to network with them—and senior executives from other companies like yours.

Seating is limited, so register now. Don’t miss what promises to be an informative, interesting event.

Panelists:

• Trish Collins, Manager, ISV Alliance Program of IBM
• Thomas Dollhopf, VP and CFO of IndX Software, a Siemens Company
• Rick Franz, VP of Strategic planning of Qlogic
• Himanshu Palsule, VP General Mgr for Mid Market Division of SAGE
  

Moderator: Rick Sharga, President and CEO of CJ Patrick Company

Rick Sharga is the President and CEO of CJ Patrick Company, a business strategy firm that helps its customers create unique value propositions and successfully deploy them in the marketplace. A nationally-recognized speaker on branding, Rick has nearly a quarter century of experience developing sales and marketing strategies for leading technology companies such as Fujitsu, Toshiba, Hitachi, JD Edwards, Honeywell and Best Software.

Included among his accomplishments are launching a $1.8 billion international business for DuPont and leading the re-positioning efforts that successfully introduced Cox Communications into the Business-to-Business market. At CJ Patrick Company, Rick applies the disciplines learned working with these corporations to help small to medium sized enterprises accelerate growth and enter new markets.

A proud father of two active youngsters, Rick spends his spare time barbecuing—and comparing notes with other BBQ aficionados about what wines go best with baby back spare ribs.

Thomas Dollhopf is Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at IndX Software Corporation, a Siemens Company.
Mr. Dollhopf joined IndX in January 2004, at the time of the Siemens' acquisition and was responsible for the overall integration of IndX into Siemens.

Before, Mr. Dollhopf co-founded Siemens Venture Capital (SVC). For 5 years, he was responsible for all Enterprise Software investments of Siemens - IndX being one of his investments.

Prior to SVC, he held various positions at DaimlerChrysler and Siemens in Germany and the US.

Mr. Dollhopf received an MBA (Dipl.-Kfm.) from the University of Bayreuth, Germany.

Trish Collins, Program Manager of ISV Alliance Management in ISV & Developer Relations at IBM
Trish Collins joined IBM in 1977 and has held positions as a Systems Engineer and Sales Specialist. In January 2001 Trish joined IBM's Developer Relations group after IBM made the decision to partner, rather than compete, with application software firms. She has been involved with IBM's Strategic Alliance Program. As IBM has expanded their focus from the top ISVs to a broader ecosystem of partnerships she has been involved in other partnering programs including Partner World for Industry Networks.

Trish received a Master of International Management from Thunderbird, the Garvin School of International Management.