"As often with financial groups, they keep companies for a limited period of time, " said Navimo communications manager, Cathy Millien. "In our case, we had imagined it would be around five years which is the standard with such investors."

BridgePoint Capital took over Navimo in the summer of 2000 and as they achieved the profit and growth they expected over four years, they made up their minds to let us go sometime in 2004 if possible Millien added.

"We knew that this was in the air for the last few months and it came as no surprise to the Navimo management team, " she said.

Navimo says long-term strategy will remain unchanged, as will the managing team.

Anthony Le Saffre and Patrick Frasquet remain respectively CEO and vice-president financeCFO, with Herve Ferriere, vicepresident marketing-sales, and Patrick Francois, CEO of Accastillage Bernard.