Tech site execs form rival firm

AceQuote.com helps businesses find cheap computers

By Robert Andrews BBC News Online

Three former executives of online business marketplace AceQuote.com have dramatically quit to form a rival company.

Founded in July 1999 by dot.com entrepreneurs Helga St Blaize and Gary Munz, the fast-growing Cardiff company is a website for buying and selling computer and telecom equipment.

One of the Europe's top business-to-business (B2B) sites, it facilitates £3m in business for over 40,000 companies weekly, but has drastically cut back due to the dot.com crash.

We're opposed to price discovery and squeezed margins - we just left

Imogen Bailey, Boffin director

Former marketing manager Imogen Bailey said she and two others walked out over acrimonious professional differences to form a similar firm, named Boffin.

Based in the Welsh capital's Canton suburb, it pits the upstarts against their heavyweight former bosses.

While AceQuote.com connects technology buyers and sellers, Bailey's Boffin will connect companies with direct marketing material from its Monday launch.

The new operation claims 2,000 businesses have already signed up as customers thanks to a direct marketing campaign. AceQuote.com will now investigate the origin of that client base.

Professional differences

Ms Bailey said she quit her post along with sales manager Matt Bowen and marketplace manager Leon Hardwick without telling their bosses.

Speaking to BBC News Online, Bailey said the split was not amicable.

Helga St Blaize steered AceQuote.com to success

"There were professional differences over the business model," she said, referring to the fabled B2B concept, which has hoped to brave the dot.com downfall.

"They didn't know we were leaving; we just left."

AceQuote.com carried the B2B banner for Europe since its launch, quickly headhunting talent and clients from its base at Cardiff Gate during the dot.com boom and, recently, from Dumfries Place in the city centre.

The company was founded by IT specialist Munz and business journalist St Blaize - a leading light in the UK internet economy who jointly formed Cardiff's First Tuesday e-commerce networking club - but the pair are no longer with the firm.

Future direction

With their website, vendors compete for buyers' custom - in theory, offering the lowest industry prices available.

But AceQuote.com was bought by Munich-based DCI-AG in May 2000 for DM85m and has been forced to downsize dramatically, outsourcing its sales and marketing department to Germany.

After employing 100 at the height of the boom, the company cut back to just six staff recently, but AceQuote.com remains a major player.

We aim to stay in Cardiff

Imogen Bailey, Boffin director

Apparent differences over future directions could not stop the departure of Bailey or colleagues Bowen and Hardwick.

The Boffin director told tech news website The Register: "We're opposed to the idea of price discovery and squeezed margins and see practices and marketplaces that encourage them as detrimental to the channel and end users.

"Value is key to maintaining two-sided relationships that deliver tangible benefit. We left Acequote for this reason."

AceQuote.com managing director Robin Beetge, however, told BBC News Online the trio was made redundant in November as his company shed staff.

He said he was "concerned" Boffin would share his own customer community.

Welsh base

Boffin has been started with around £500,000 in capital. So-called because the name matches its characteristics, says Bailey, the company promises faster searching and personal relationships with clients.

Currently recruiting, the bosses even promise new employees a day off for their birthday.

In language reminiscent of the heady days of lofty e-economy hype, Boffin's website describes the company as an "online info-meta portal."

Bailey told BBC News Online the company is laying down roots and staying put.

"We aim to stay in Cardiff and make Wales our base," she said.

"And we have big European expansion plans."

Boffin aims to open offices in France, Sweden and elsewhere by 2003.