HighJump's new owners cut staff in restructuring

Less than a month after being sold by 3M Co. to a capital investment firm, HighJump Software has eliminated about a quarter of its workforce in a new restructuring plan.

As many as 80 jobs could be lost among 350 people worldwide, according to an employee who's among those laid off but declined to be identified.

Chad Collins, vice president for marketing and strategy at the Eden Prairie-based company, wouldn't give specifics, but said "the Twin Cities impact was less than that."

HighJump, a developer of "supply-chain execution" software, is engaging a new strategy after its recent sale to Boston-based Battery Ventures, he said. The sale to the venture capital and private equity firm that has raised nearly $3 billion since it was founded 25 years ago closed in early June. Terms weren't disclosed.

3M paid about $90 million for HighJump in 2003. HighJump grew steadily, from $34 million in annual sales to more than $90 million, on warehouse- and inventory-management contracts with the likes of Aveda's global warehouse in Blaine, International Paper Co. and several top suppliers to Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

HighJump's 1,300 customers included heavyweights American Port Services, Circuit City, Starbucks, Honeywell, Sony, Toro and Kimberly-Clark.

The day the sale was completed, former company President Joel Levinson was replaced and is no longer working there, Collins said.

"We now feel with the financial resources of Battery, the acquisition path is a stronger path for us," Collins said.

Their customers are looking to purchase from fewer information technology suppliers, he said, so the goal is to build a larger and more diverse product portfolio to meet those demands.

HighJump's new strategy is "aligning us for growth through acquisition with some additional organic growth," Collins said, "but not basing our entire business on speculative organic product development."