Think Tools AG
Encyclopedia
Think Tools AG was a Swiss IT company that rose and fell with the dot com bubble in Europe.
The company was founded by the philosopher Albrecht von Müller
as a consultancy company in 1993.
In the company's IPO on March 24, 2000, at the peak of the dot com bubble, the shares were emitted at CHF 270. On the first trading day the share price peaked at CHF 1050, driven by investor excitement generated by the company's connections to the World Economic Forum
and promises that the company would play a central role in transferring the world to knowledge economy
through the software tools the company claimed to be developing.
The peak share price corresponded to a market valuation of CHF 2.52 billion.
In addition to consultancy, the company had developed tools for supporting corporate problem solving by allowing its users to graphically visualize their thinking: a kind of an intelligent notepad to assist the user in solving problems. However, the software, called Think Tools Suite, did not have any knowledge representation
, problem-solving, or reasoning capability by itself.
The company advertising made general claims about their software's ability to strengthen organizations' ability to generate, store, and utilize knowledge, and the tools being the result of a decade-long research program at the Max Planck Institute of Physics into ways to support cognitive processes. Nelson Mandela
was cited as a reference client who uses the Think Tools software "for policy formulation and policy coordination between the national, provincial and local levels".
The company was profitable prior to the IPO, with a net income of CHF 3.9 million with sales of CHF 10.6 million in 1999, mostly from services to companies with close relations to the World Economic Forum
, but these figures were only a very small fraction of the value of the company's stock after the IPO (corresponding to an extremely high price-to-earning ratio), characteristic of dot com bubble companies before share price collapse.
In the peak year, 2000, sales were CHF 25.3 million, but the company made a CHF 19.8 million loss.
The downward slope of the share price resulted from analysts reporting the stock to be seriously overvalued , from the allegations of plagiarism
of the works by the biochemistry professor Frederic Vester
in its Think Tools Suite product , from the collapse of sales after the IPO, and the company's inability to progress toward implementing the visions that had raised the investors' expectations extremely high.
It also turned out that the information about the company and its product had been misleading. For example, most of the reference clients at the time of the IPO did not actually use the Think Tools Suite for anything .
The company's business model was to sell the Think Tools Suite software licence for a one time fee, up to CHF 1 million per licence, and the market of companies willing to buy the software was very quickly exhausted.
In 2001 sales were only CHF 3.4 million, and the company made a CHF 14.5 million loss.
On November 2, 2001 shares traded at CHF 26.
Only after the company's failure became apparent did the investors start questioning whether the Think Tools software actually had the capabilities claimed by von Müller.
On January 3, 2003 the company's shares traded at CHF 8.20.
Sales in 2003 were CHF 1.9 million, with operating expenses of CHF 12.2 million.
In May 2004 Think Tools agreed to merge with the Swiss IT company redIT AG. As a result, redIT AG became a publicly traded company in the Swiss stock exchange.
In October 2004 redIT AG sold the rights to the main remaining Think Tools asset, the Think Tools Suite, to the Parmenides Foundation
(also founded by Albrecht von Müller) . The sales price was CHF 350000.
Parmenides Foundation renamed Think Tools Suite to Parmenides Eidos Suite - Visual Reasoning and Knowledge Representation, and is selling it.
The company has still been portrayed positively years after it ceased to exist: "A Swiss based advisory firm with a high powered board comprising former Prime Ministers, financiers, industrialist and the founder of the World Economic Forum
, Klaus Schwab
. 'A brilliant experience, Think Tools had advised DASA
on developing the A-380 Airbus, Nelson Mandela
and the South African government on development policy options and a variety of corporates and governmental entities around the world.'”
The company was founded by the philosopher Albrecht von Müller
Albrecht von Müller
Albrecht von Müller is a philosopher and former entrepreneur best known forthe controversial Swiss dot com bubble company Think Tools AG....
as a consultancy company in 1993.
In the company's IPO on March 24, 2000, at the peak of the dot com bubble, the shares were emitted at CHF 270. On the first trading day the share price peaked at CHF 1050, driven by investor excitement generated by the company's connections to the World Economic Forum
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....
and promises that the company would play a central role in transferring the world to knowledge economy
Knowledge economy
The knowledge economy is a term that refers either to an economy of knowledge focused on the production and management of knowledge in the frame of economic constraints, or to a knowledge-based economy. In the second meaning, more frequently used, it refers to the use of knowledge technologies to...
through the software tools the company claimed to be developing.
The peak share price corresponded to a market valuation of CHF 2.52 billion.
In addition to consultancy, the company had developed tools for supporting corporate problem solving by allowing its users to graphically visualize their thinking: a kind of an intelligent notepad to assist the user in solving problems. However, the software, called Think Tools Suite, did not have any knowledge representation
Knowledge representation
Knowledge representation is an area of artificial intelligence research aimed at representing knowledge in symbols to facilitate inferencing from those knowledge elements, creating new elements of knowledge...
, problem-solving, or reasoning capability by itself.
The company advertising made general claims about their software's ability to strengthen organizations' ability to generate, store, and utilize knowledge, and the tools being the result of a decade-long research program at the Max Planck Institute of Physics into ways to support cognitive processes. Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
was cited as a reference client who uses the Think Tools software "for policy formulation and policy coordination between the national, provincial and local levels".
The company was profitable prior to the IPO, with a net income of CHF 3.9 million with sales of CHF 10.6 million in 1999, mostly from services to companies with close relations to the World Economic Forum
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....
, but these figures were only a very small fraction of the value of the company's stock after the IPO (corresponding to an extremely high price-to-earning ratio), characteristic of dot com bubble companies before share price collapse.
In the peak year, 2000, sales were CHF 25.3 million, but the company made a CHF 19.8 million loss.
The downward slope of the share price resulted from analysts reporting the stock to be seriously overvalued , from the allegations of plagiarism
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
of the works by the biochemistry professor Frederic Vester
Frederic Vester
Frederic Vester was a German biochemist, and an expert in the field of ecology.- Biography :Vester was born in Saarbrücken, and studied chemistry at the universities of Mainz, Paris and Hamburg. From 1955 to 1957 he was postdoctoral fellow at Yale University and Cambridge...
in its Think Tools Suite product , from the collapse of sales after the IPO, and the company's inability to progress toward implementing the visions that had raised the investors' expectations extremely high.
It also turned out that the information about the company and its product had been misleading. For example, most of the reference clients at the time of the IPO did not actually use the Think Tools Suite for anything .
The company's business model was to sell the Think Tools Suite software licence for a one time fee, up to CHF 1 million per licence, and the market of companies willing to buy the software was very quickly exhausted.
In 2001 sales were only CHF 3.4 million, and the company made a CHF 14.5 million loss.
On November 2, 2001 shares traded at CHF 26.
Only after the company's failure became apparent did the investors start questioning whether the Think Tools software actually had the capabilities claimed by von Müller.
On January 3, 2003 the company's shares traded at CHF 8.20.
Sales in 2003 were CHF 1.9 million, with operating expenses of CHF 12.2 million.
In May 2004 Think Tools agreed to merge with the Swiss IT company redIT AG. As a result, redIT AG became a publicly traded company in the Swiss stock exchange.
In October 2004 redIT AG sold the rights to the main remaining Think Tools asset, the Think Tools Suite, to the Parmenides Foundation
Parmenides Foundation
The Parmenides Foundation was founded by Albrecht von Müller in 2000 to support interdisciplinary research on thinking.The foundation has an international faculty of more than 30 researchers from the fields of neurosciences, philosophy, neuroinformatics, cognitive psychology, linguistics,...
(also founded by Albrecht von Müller) . The sales price was CHF 350000.
Parmenides Foundation renamed Think Tools Suite to Parmenides Eidos Suite - Visual Reasoning and Knowledge Representation, and is selling it.
The company has still been portrayed positively years after it ceased to exist: "A Swiss based advisory firm with a high powered board comprising former Prime Ministers, financiers, industrialist and the founder of the World Economic Forum
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....
, Klaus Schwab
Klaus Schwab
Klaus Martin Schwab is a German economist, best known as the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum. His wife and former secretary, Hilde, co-founded the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship with him...
. 'A brilliant experience, Think Tools had advised DASA
DASA
DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG, or DASA, was the former aerospace subsidiary of Daimler-Benz AG from 1989...
on developing the A-380 Airbus, Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
and the South African government on development policy options and a variety of corporates and governmental entities around the world.'”