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February 18, 2009 By Matt Williams
Management and technology consultancy BearingPoint has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy for its U.S. operations, CEO Ed Harbach announced Wednesday.
The McLean, Va.-based BearingPoint operates Texas Online -- the Texas state Web portal -- under a contract awarded by the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR). The contract expires Dec. 31, and Texas Online is currently in the re-procurement process.
Regardless of BearingPoint's status, the DIR has told its state and local customers that day-to-day operations of Texas Online won't be changing, said David Duncan, the DIR communications manager.
"[The state] has possession of both the hardware and the software, so the servers [for Texas Online] are located in the state's data center. We possess the code that makes up Texas Online, so we've worked with the state comptroller and BearingPoint to ensure the flow of funds from transactions is secure," Duncan said.
According to a press release, BearingPoint has reached agreement with its lead creditors to reduce its debt. BusinessWeek reported that BearingPoint had $2.2 billion in debt and $1.8 billion in assets as of September 2008.
"Our day-to-day operations will continue uninterrupted and we want to assure our employees and customers that we remain committed to serving our clients and to providing world-class consulting solutions," Harbach said in the release. "This restructuring is an important step to secure a better and stronger future for BearingPoint and we expect to emerge from this process in an expeditious manner."
According to BearingPoint, since TexasOnline was launched in 2000, the portal has received more than 140 million visits processed more than 80 million financial transactions, collected more than $6 billion in revenue for participating state and local government clients, and delivered more than 800 services.
BearingPoint, with 15,000 employees worldwide, spun off from KPMG in 2001.
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