Presiding over the opening bell on NASDAQ gave me an opportunity to thank NASDAQ’s management and employees for all their support. Thousands of companies dream of being listed on this exchange to obtain financial support, liquidity for their shareholders, and much needed visibility.

ILOG has enjoyed 10 years on NASDAQ in our 20 years of existence. Indeed, recent years have been much more painful due to stringent, sometimes silly, Sarbanes-Oxley regulations. When shareholder protection conflicts with sound business practices, one knows the pendulum has swung too far in the direction of safety and too little in the direction of entrepreneurship. Controlling risk is necessary; trying to avoid all risks is impossible and counterproductive.

A risk we all may want to reflect on in this new century is global warming. At ILOG, we know that our products help contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions in transportation, manufacturing, and energy generation. But we know we must do more, and we plan to. Do your best, try to behave smarter with ILOG, and stay tuned!

ILOG CEO Pierre Haren (center) and several employees cheer as the NASDAQ opening bell rings.

NASDAQ
10 years on top tech market
ILOG literally rang in its 20th anniversary as a company and 10th year on NASDAQ by presiding over the U.S. stock market’s opening bell ceremony on April 30.

ILOG CEO Pierre Haren and several ILOG employees gathered for the ceremony and cheered as the bell rang. The opening was broadcast live on CNBC and NASDAQ’s seven-story video display overlooking Times Square in New York City. Mr. Haren completed the ceremony by signing the NASDAQ guest lectern, and his signature and ILOG’s logo were also shown on the outdoor monitor.

“Our great customers, business partners, investors, shareholders and dedicated employees, combined with our commitment to technical excellence, have made this anniversary a happy milestone for us,” says Mr. Haren. “The right ingredients of all of the above have enabled us to successfully ride several major waves of enterprise software.”

ILOG started as a handful of people in a small Paris office in 1987. It has since grown into a multinational with more than 800 employees and 10 main offices in major markets around the globe, including the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific. It joined NASDAQ in 1997 and was listed on the Euronext stock exchange in Paris the following year.

Today, ILOG’s business is based on three primary software technologies: business rules, optimization and visualization. It leads the market for business rule management systems and has set the pace for optimization since acquiring CPLEX Optimization Inc. Its recent purchase of LogicTools Inc. has increased ILOG’s presence in the market for supply chain management solutions, where ILOG also offers the PowerOps line of production and transportation planning and scheduling applications.

Learn more about ILOG’s anniversaries