Lavastorm
Encyclopedia
Lavastorm is a Massachusetts
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 licenses.
. Early locations in Massachusetts
included Cambridge
, Allston
, and Waltham
. The name was changed to Lavastorm in May 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.
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. 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
.
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. 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
.
-based company specializing in billing
and Customer relationship management (CRM)
software for the communications industry. 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. Lavastorm kept its name, but also became the Martin Dawes Systems revenue assurance and fraud
management division.
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, Jason Loia was Director of Wireless Entertainment, and Albert So was the Chief Mobile Code Monkey
. It produced over 30 games for mobile phone
s, using BREW and Java ME
, mostly based on licenses from other companies, such as the movies Van Helsing
, and The Incredibles
, and Capcom
's classic video game Mega Man
.. The company dissolved in 2005, with many developers moving on to found Punch Entertainment, Inc.
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
based international technology company with a colorful history of projects, awards, mergers, acquisitions, and a refocus from web development
Web development
Web development is a broad term for the work involved in developing a web site for the Internet or an intranet . This can include web design, web content development, client liaison, client-side/server-side scripting, web server and network security configuration, and e-commerce development...
to revenue assurance. A spin-off company in Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
(California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
) made mobile games from famous licenses.
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 TechnologyMassachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
. Early locations in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
included Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, Allston
Allston, Boston, Massachusetts
Allston is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located in the western part of the city. It was named after the American painter and poet Washington Allston. It comprises the land covered by the zip code 02134. For the most part, Allston is administered collectively with the adjacent...
, and Waltham
Waltham, Massachusetts
Waltham is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, was an early center for the labor movement, and major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, the city was a prototype for 19th century industrial city planning,...
. The name was changed to Lavastorm in May 1999.
The company's initial focus was developing high performance Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
systems and applications, especially web sites. High-profile successes included Monster.com
Monster.com
Monster.com is one of the largest employment websites in the world, owned and operated by Monster Worldwide, Inc. Monster is one of the 20 most visited websites out of 100 million worldwide, according to comScore Media Metrics...
, the employment website
Employment website
An employment website is a web site dealing specifically with employment or careers. Many employment websites are designed to allow employers to post job requirements for a position to be filled and are commonly known as job boards. Other employment sites offer employer reviews, career and...
; FamilySearch
FamilySearch
FamilySearch is a genealogy organization established and run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is the largest genealogy organization in the world. FamilySearch consists of a collection of records, resources, and services designed to help people learn more about their family...
the free genealogy
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
website sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; EdgarWatch, the first on-Web system delivering SEC filing
SEC filing
An SEC filing is a financial statement or other formal document submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission . Public companies, certain insiders, and broker-dealers are required to make regular SEC filings. Investors and financial professionals rely on these filings for information...
documents in real-time.
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. 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
Oak Investment Partners
Oak Investment Partners is a private equity firm focusing on venture capital investments in companies developing communications systems, information technology, new Internet media, healthcare services and retail....
, Lehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was a global financial services firm. Before declaring bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth largest investment bank in the USA , doing business in investment banking, equity and fixed-income sales and trading Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (former NYSE ticker...
, Reuters Venture Capital, and Intel. In 18 months, the company expanded from 20 employees to over 200, opening a Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
office in San Jose
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, and acquiring PixelDance, a web design
Web design
Web design is the process of planning and creating a website. Text, images, digital media and interactive elements are used by web designers to produce the page seen on the web browser...
company in Watertown, Massachusetts
Watertown, Massachusetts
The Town of Watertown is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 31,915 at the 2010 census.- History :Archeological evidence suggests that Watertown was inhabited for thousands of years before the arrival of settlers from England...
.
Revenue assurance
In the latter half of 2000 and 2001, as the dot-com bubbleDot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2000 during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the more...
burst, Lavastorm reinvented itself. It laid off employees, and split off its internet engineering services in San Jose, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
, selling them to management. The Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
operation, now only 20 employees, became a telecommunications revenue assurance software provider after doing a project with Verizon Communications
Verizon Communications
Verizon Communications Inc. is a global broadband and telecommunications company and a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average...
. In 2001 Lavastorm introduced the Revenue Assurance and Intercarrier Cost Management products. Drew Rockwell, a former executive at Verizon, was hired the same year, and Newton left in 2003. Lindsey went to work for Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
, and later became the Chief Technology Officer for the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
and United States Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
.
Martin Dawes Systems purchase
In July 2005, Lavastorm was bought by Martin Dawes Systems, a United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-based company specializing in billing
Bill (payment)
A bill or invoice is a document requesting payment for an order previously supplied. Presentation of a bill is common practice on the part of credit card companies, utilities, and other service providers...
and Customer relationship management (CRM)
Customer relationship management
Customer relationship management is a widely implemented strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing,...
software for the communications industry. Combined company annual revenues were expected to be US$35 million.
In February 2006, Lavastorm merged with Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
-based revenue assurance and fraud detection software company Visual Wireless. The combined customer list includes BellSouth
BellSouth
BellSouth Corporation is an American telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies after the U.S...
, Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
, TeliaSonera
TeliaSonera
TeliaSonera AB is the dominant telephone company and mobile network operator in Sweden and Finland. The company has operations in other countries in Northern, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Spain, with a total of 150 million mobile customers...
, Telstra
Telstra
Telstra Corporation Limited is an Australian telecommunications and media company, building and operating telecommunications networks and marketing voice, mobile, internet access and pay television products and services....
and Vodafone
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Plc is a global telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world's second-largest measured by subscribers , with around 341 million proportionate subscribers as of...
. Drew Rockwell, Lavastorm CEO, continues as head of the merged company. Lavastorm kept its name, but also became the Martin Dawes Systems revenue assurance and fraud
Fraud
In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
management division.
Awards
- Winner in Telestrategies Excellence Awards for "Best Case Study" 2003
- Finalist in the Telestrategies Excellence Awards 2003, 2004 and 2005
Lavastorm Engineering
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
spin-off called itself Lavastorm Engineering, and was one of the first companies producing mobile games. Paul Abbassi was CEO
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
and CTO, Jason Loia was Director of Wireless Entertainment, and Albert So was the Chief Mobile Code Monkey
Code monkey
A Code monkey is a computer programmer or other person who writes computer code for a living. This term may be slightly derogatory, meaning that this developer can write some code but is unable to perform the more complex tasks of software architecture, analysis, and design...
. It produced over 30 games for mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
s, using BREW and Java ME
Java Platform, Micro Edition
Java Platform, Micro Edition, or Java ME, is a Java platform designed for embedded systems . Target devices range from industrial controls to mobile phones and set-top boxes...
, mostly based on licenses from other companies, such as the movies Van Helsing
Van Helsing (film)
Van Helsing is a 2004 American action horror film directed by Stephen Sommers. It stars Hugh Jackman as vigilante monster hunter Gabriel Van Helsing, and Kate Beckinsale...
, and The Incredibles
The Incredibles
The Incredibles is a 2004 American computer-animated action-comedy superhero film about a family of superheroes who are forced to hide their powers. It was written and directed by Brad Bird, a former director and executive consultant of The Simpsons, and was produced by Pixar and distributed by...
, and Capcom
Capcom
is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...
's classic video game Mega Man
Mega Man (video game)
Mega Man, known as in Japan, is a video game developed and published by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System . It is the first game in the original Mega Man series and the entire Mega Man franchise...
.. The company dissolved in 2005, with many developers moving on to found Punch Entertainment, Inc.
Punch Entertainment, Inc.
Punch Entertainment is a developer and publisher of social games, casual online games and iPhone games. Punch is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States with product development offices in Hanoi, Vietnam...
External links
- "Revenue Assurance and Fraud Management by Lavastorm." Official site
- "Lavastorm Technologies, Inc." company information from Hoover'sHoover'sHoover's, Inc., a subsidiary of Dun & Bradstreet, is a business research company that has provided information on U.S. and foreign companies and industries since 1990. Since 1993, the company has made its information available on its website.-Operations:...