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Purplewire a Syracuse Research Spin Off
The new company specializes in high-end Web development.
By Tim Knauss, Syracuse Newspapers, March 3, 2001
A Web development venture that began five years ago as a division
of the not-for-profit Syracuse Research Corp. has been spun off
to create a for-profit company called Purplewire LLC.
Formerly known as the Application Technology Center
of Syracuse Research Corp., Purplewire specializes in high-end Web
development of the sort used in interactive, transactional e-business
applications.
The company will be led by the same managers who
ran the SRC division, including Chung-Chi Cha, Purplewire's president,
who was a 20-year veteran of SRC. Purplewire plans to move out of
SRC's offices in North Syracuse soon and is looking for a location
downtown. The company has 11 employees.
"This is a great opportunity for the Web development
group to expand their horizons," said Robert Roberts, president
and CEO of Syracuse Research.
Purplewire purchased the intellectual property, receivables
and furniture of the Web-development division from SRC for an undisclosed
sum, said Lisa Mondello, speaking for Syracuse Research Corp., which
has retained an equity interest in the venture.
Besides designing and maintaining Web sites
for community organizations such as the daVinci
Project, which aims to lure high-tech workers to Central New
York, Purplewire has done work for commercial clients.
As a Syracuse Research division, for example, Purplewire
developed an extranet for Carrier Corp.'s Transicold Division that
allows Transicold dealers to submit and validate warranty claims.
Other commercial clients have included Hoffman
Air & Filtration Systems and POMCO.
But Syracuse Research Corp.'s status as a not-for-profit
organization limits the amount of commercial work it can do and
prevents it from seeking investors, joint ventures or strategic
partnerships. Purplewire won't face those limitations.And where
does the name come from?
When the Application Technology Center first
set up shop in raw office space at Syracuse Research Corp., the
first things to go into the space were lots of purple cables used
to connect its network, Cha said.
Founded in 1957, Syracuse Research Corp. is a not-for-profit
research and development company focusing primarily on engineering,
environmental research and information technology. The corporation
generates most of its revenue from government contracts.
Purplewire is one of at least 15 independent companies
that trace their origins to Syracuse Research or its former employees,
Mondello said.
View this article
at Syracuse.com.
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