Lavastorm

Infobox_Company
company_name = Lavastorm
company_
company_type = Private
foundation = 1993
location = Boston, Massachusetts, United States; Stockholm, Sweden
key_people = Drew Rockwell, CEO, Justin Lindsey, founder | industry = Revenue assurance, formerly Web development
products = BRAIN, Visual CDR/Visual Fraud
revenue =
operating_income =
net_income =
num_employees =
subsid = | homepage = http://www.lavastorm.com
footnotes =

Lavastorm is a historically Massachusetts, U.S.-based international technology company with a colorful history of projects, awards, mergers, acquisitions, and a refocus from web development to revenue assurance. A spin-off company in Silicon Valley (California) made mobile games from famous licences.

Web development

The company was founded as JLM Technologies in 1993 by Justin and LeAnn Lindsey with a group of engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Early locations in Massachusetts included Cambridge, Allston, and Waltham. The name was changed to Lavastorm in May 1999. [http://masshightech.bizjournals.com/masshightech/stories/2005/07/25/story7.html "After rocky road, Lavastorm heats up, is acquired"] , "Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology", July 22, 2005, by Ethan Forman] [http://boston.internet.com/news/article.php/2011_259581 "20 for 2000"] , By Colin C. Haley and Gavin McCormick, "boston.internet.com", December 15, 1999 ]

The company's initial focus was developing high performance Internet systems and applications, especially web sites. High-profile successes included Monster.com, the employment website; FamilySearch the free genealogy website sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; EdgarWatch, the first on-Web system delivering SEC filing documents in real-time. [http://www.gracematthews.com/industry/software/lava.htm "Lavastorm"] Grace Matthews, Inc. investment bank]

V. Miller Newton was the CEO of Monster.com when it hired Lavastorm to redesign its web site and infrastructure; in 1999, he moved over to head the smaller company. Lindsey stayed on as Chief Solutions Officer. [http://www.varbusiness.com/sections/technology/tech.jhtml;jsessionid=1PUD05I52LJIUQSNDLRCKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleId=18818329&_requestid=127401"Technocrats of the Internet"] By Rich Cirillo, "VARBusiness", November 11, 2000] In September 1999 and June 2000, Lavastorm raised US$55 million in venture capital funding from partnerships including Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Oak Investment Partners, Lehman Brothers, Reuters Venture Capital, and Intel. In 18 months, the company expanded from 20 employees to over 200, opening a Silicon Valley office in San Jose, California, and acquiring PixelDance, a web design company in Watertown, Massachusetts. [http://boston.internet.com/news/article.php/367461 "LavaStorm Does the PixelDance"] , May 19, 2000 by Gavin McCormick, "boston.internet.com"]

Revenue assurance

In the latter half of 2000 and 2001, as the dot-com bubble burst, Lavastorm reinvented itself. It laid off employees, and split off its internet engineering services in San Jose, California, selling them to management. The Massachusetts operation, now only 20 employees, became a telecommunications revenue assurance software provider after doing a project with Verizon Communications. In 2001 Lavastorm introduced the Revenue Assurance and Intercarrier Cost Management products. [http://www.lavastorm.com/info.asp/id/20 "About Us @ Lavastorm"] Official company history] Drew Rockwell, a former executive at Verizon, was hired the same year, and Newton left in 2003. Lindsey went to work for Hewlett-Packard, and later became the Chief Technology Officer for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Department of Justice. [http://masshightech.bizjournals.com/masshightech/stories/2006/11/27/newscolumn1.html "After stint as technocrat, exec takes CTO role at Netezza"] , "Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology" - November 24, 2006, by Efrain Viscarolasaga]

Martin Dawes Systems purchase

In July 2005, Lavastorm was bought by Martin Dawes Systems, a United Kingdom-based company specializing in billing and Customer relationship management (CRM) software for the communications industry. [http://www.mobileeurope.co.uk/interviews/interview.ehtml?o=1598 "A Lavastorm at Martin Dawes"] , Keith Dyer interview with Dewi Thomas, Managing Director of Martin Dawes Systems, and Drew Rockwell, CEO of Lavastorm, "Mobile Europe", 01 November, 2005] Combined company annual revenues were expected to be US$35 million.

In February 2006, Lavastorm merged with Stockholm, Sweden-based revenue assurance and fraud detection software company Visual Wireless. The combined customer list includes BellSouth, Comcast, TeliaSonera, Telstra and Vodafone. Drew Rockwell, Lavastorm CEO, continues as head of the merged company. [http://www.mobileeurope.co.uk/news_wire/news_wire_story.ehtml?o=1850 "Martin Dawes Systems Buys Visual Wireless; Creates Revenue Assurance Division"] , NewsWire, "Mobile Europe", 06 February, 2006] Lavastorm kept its name, but also became the Martin Dawes Systems revenue assurance and fraud management division. [http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36063 "Don't fall for the one-ring fraud over Xmas"] , By Tony Dennis, 30 November, 2006, "The Inquirer"]

Awards

* Winner in Telestrategies Excellence Awards for "Best Case Study" 2003
* Finalist in the Telestrategies Excellence Awards 2003, 2004 and 2005

Lavastorm Engineering

The Silicon Valley spin-off called itself Lavastorm Engineering, and was one of the first companies producing mobile games. Paul Abbassi was CEO and CTO [http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/127/127580.html "Lavastorm Engineering Inc. Company Profile"] , Yahoo! Finance] , Jason Loia was Director of Wireless Entertainment [http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/wi-elite21.html?ca=drs-wi0404 "Secrets of the wireless elite: Jason Loia"] , John Papageorge, IBM developerWorks, 07 January, 2004] , and Albert So was the Chief Mobile Code Monkey. It produced over 30 games for mobile phones, using BREW and J2ME, mostly based on licenses from other companies, such as the movies "Van Helsing", and "The Incredibles", and Capcom's classic video game Mega Man.IGN|type=games|id=573/573727|name=Lavastorm Engineering] [http://www.gamespy.com/company/573/573727.html "GameSpy Lavastorm Engineering Company Profile"] ] [http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/company/75096.html "Game FAQs : Lavastorm"] ] . The company dissolved in 2005, with many developers moving on to found Punch Entertainment, Inc.

References

External links

* [http://www.lavastorm.com "Revenue Assurance and Fraud Management by Lavastorm."] Official site
* [http://www.hoovers.com/lavastorm-technologies/--ID__127564--/free-co-factsheet.xhtml "Lavastorm Technologies, Inc."] company information from Hoover's