The contest to see who could acquire more supply chain software companies — SSA Global or Infor — has come to an end, with Infor declared the winner by virtue of its acquisition of SSA Global for roughly $1.4 billion ($19.50 per share). Both companies are providers of extended enterprise solutions, primarily for the manufacturing and distribution industries, and between them they've acquired in the neighborhood of 20 smaller (and often financially challenged) software companies in recent years.
The combined company will have approximately $1.6 billion in revenue, says Jim Schaper, Infor's chairman and CEO. The two companies have more than 35,000 combined customers. The deal is expected to close in the third calendar quarter of 2006.
The Infor/SSA combination will include product lines acquired from the following former companies: Agilisys, Arzoon, Baan, Brain, Datastream, Epiphany, EXE Technologies, Geac, InterBiz, Lilly Software, Mapics, Marcam, Mercia, NxTrend, Provia, and Vigilance, among others.
