Blue Pumpkin gets $19.2M treat.(Blue Pumpkin Software, mezzanine financing)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)

Byline: Clifford Carlsen

Blue Pumpkin Software Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., has lured $19.2 million in late-stage mezzanine financing for products to improve service in corporate call centers, even as investor interest in customer relationship management software has faded.

The deal brings Blue Pumpkin's total funding to $59.7 million in four rounds beginning in late 1998 and is expected to do what its last round of $24 million in April 2000 did not -- take the company to profitability and a public offering. Blue Pumpkin is calling the new money a senior mezzanine round and has brought in a roster of New York-based crossover funds and investment banks looking for public markets to show new life.

J&W Seligman & Co. led the round, with investments by other new investors C.E. Unterberg, Towbin; Needham Capital Partners and Liberty View Equity Partners, a U.S. subsidiary of French bank Compagnie …