Baltimore Technologies was a leading Irish

internet security Internet security is a branch of computer security. It encompasses the Internet, browser security, web site security, and network security as it applies to other applications or operating systems as a whole. Its objective is to establish rules ...

firm, with its headquarters in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

. It was listed on the

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and was briefly part of the

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during 2000. Fran Rooney was the CEO for a period in the 1990s.

History

The company was founded in 1976 by Michael Purser. Baltimore was acquired in 1996 by a team financed by

Dermot Desmond Dermot Desmond (born 14 August 1950) is an Irish businessman and financier. He is estimated to be worth €2.04 billion and is ranked by the ''Sunday Independent'' as the ninth-richest person in Ireland. Early life and education Desmond was b ...

and led by Fran Rooney. In December 1998 it was further acquired by Zergo Limited, a UK company listed on the

. Post-acquisition, Zergo changed its name to Baltimore Technologies and Rooney was appointed

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of the merged company. Under Rooney's leadership, Baltimore expanded rapidly, both through

organic growth Organic business growth is related to the growth of natural systems and organisms, societies and economies, as a dynamic organizational process, that for business expansion is marked by increased output, customer base expansion, or new product devel ...

and by a series of high-profile

acquisitions Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

. In 1999 the company was listed on NASDAQ and the share price soared in value during the internet boom as its

digital certificate In cryptography, a public key certificate, also known as a digital certificate or identity certificate, is an electronic document used to prove the validity of a public key. The certificate includes information about the key, information about the ...

business was seen as a vital tool to enable

e-Commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manag ...

. The company showed considerable growth in both sales and

market capitalisation Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders. Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by ...

, becoming a

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firm with a market capitalization of over US$13 billion. However, following the stock market crash of March 2000, its share price fell. Rooney resigned as CEO in July 2001 and a bidding war for the firm ensued. Bijan Khezri, a former director of Baltimore Technologies in charge of capital markets finance, who had left the company over disagreements with Rooney in 2000, was appointed CEO. The new management team sold off the different business units in a series of demergers and by December 2003, following the sale of the PKI business to Betrusted and the authentication business to Hewlett Packard, the company was left a cash shell. In March 2004 the board announced its intention to move into the ''clean energy'' business. The plan was abandoned in June 2004 when vulture fund Acquisitor Holdings of

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acquired sufficient shares to take control of the cash. In February 2005 Acquisitor delisted Baltimore from the

and the various parties within Acquisitor split. The company listed on the

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at the end of February 2006 under the symbol BLM. In May 2006, the company released an AGM statement which described its strategy as "becoming a financial services business concentrating on those specialist areas of the market where we have the skills and track record to obtain an operational multiple on the valuation of our shares." The company was acquired by Oryx International Growth Fund in July 2006.

Young Scientist

Sarah Flannery Sarah Flannery (born 1982, County Cork, Ireland) was, at sixteen years old, the winner of the 1999 Esat Young Scientist Exhibition for her development of the Cayley–Purser algorithm, based on work she had done with researchers at Baltimore T ...

won the European Young Scientist of the Year award for her presentation of the Cayley–Purser algorithm, which was based on work she performed with Baltimore researchers during a short internship with the company. The algorithm is named after Michael Purser.

Media coverage

Fran Rooney was the subject of considerable media interest both in Europe and the US and was the subject of an

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, whil ...

documentary in the ''Raging Bulls'' series, first broadcast on October 17, 2009.

References

{{Authority control Software companies of Ireland Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange