Penultimate Inc

PenUltimate Inc., a publisher of so-called pen computing software, went public Wednesday in a reverse acquisition transaction. The company went public on the NASDAQ exchange by allowing itself to be acquired by Mount Tabor Properties, a publicly traded holding company with 5.79 million shares outstanding.

PenUltimate Inc., a software company that ceased operations earlier this year, has merged with Sunnyvale-based PenWare Inc. in a reverse stock split and swap giving former PenWare shareholders 90% of the new company's stock. PenUltimate said its shareholders exchanged their 16.7 million common shares in return for 250,000 PenWare common shares. PenWare shareholders also received 112,500 newly issued PenUltimate series C preferred shares.

PenUltimate Inc. said Friday that about 1.19 million shares of its common stock have been approved for trading by the Securities and Exchange Commission and California's Department of Corporations. Most of those shares, which represent about 44% of the Irvine software company's outstanding common stock, were sold in a private placement in May. But there was a required four-month waiting period before the SEC declared the shares effective.

PenUltimate Inc. said Thursday that it has signed a national software license agreement with IBM's Personal Computer Co. subsidiary for automating the unit's sales force. The value of the contract, the Irvine firm's second with International Business Machines Corp., was not divulged. PenUltimate develops software for notebook, laptop and pen-based computers used mainly by traveling professionals, such as salespeople.

Three members of PenUltimate Inc.'s board of directors have stepped down as part of a shake-up designed to push the small software company toward profitability, the company's new president said Monday. Former board chairman James L. Kelly, San Diego businessman Stuart G. Brodie and Atlanta investor Donald L. Scoggins have resigned from the seven-member board, said Richard G. Lull, who last month was named chairman, president and chief executive.

PenUltimate-IBM Deal: PenUltimate Inc. said Tuesday it signed a distribution agreement with IBM Corp. IBM's salespeople will be trained to use PenUltimate's SalesForce software family and market it to corporate clients. SalesForce can use a pen instead of a keyboard as an input device. PenUltimate, based in Irvine, designs software to run on portable computers. It was selected from a field of bidders for the IBM agreement.

PenUltimate Inc., an Irvine software company, reported a loss of $3.7 million, or $2.50 a share, for the fiscal year ended June 30, compared with a net loss of $1.4 million, or $1.78 a share, for the previous year. Revenue rose to $300,455 from $5,006. For the fourth quarter, the company said it lost $1.4 million, or 69 cents a share, compared with a loss of $492,140, or 61 cents a share, for the comparable year-earlier quarter. Revenue increased to $171,362 from $5,006.