Geac Computer Corp. Ltd., an enterprise software company, announced on Monday that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire Comshare Inc., a corporate performance management software provider.
In a cash deal worth US$52 million, Comshare shareholders will receive US$4.60 in cash for each share of Comshare common stock held.
Markham, Ont.-based Geac plans to acquire the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based company as part of its ongoing effort to build a complete suite of front office applications, the company said.
Paul Birch, president and CEO of Geac said in a conference call on Tuesday that the most important aspect of the acquisition is that it shows “Geac is continuing to execute against its strategy for growth and reinvention of the company.”
“It demonstrates our strong commitment to building and extending the value of our enterprise application systems to the evolving needs of our customers. Make no mistake, this is a customer-driven acquisition by Geac,” Birch said.
According to Geac, the company is after Comshare’s MPC suite, which includes solutions for various business performance management tasks including: planning; budgeting; forecasting; financial consolidation; and management reporting and analysis.
“I believe that the addition of the MPC product suite will increase the value of existing IT investment of our current customers as well as provide us with the opportunity, with a combined sales force, to aggressively target new customers,” Birch said.
During the conference call, Dennis Ganster, president and CEO of Comshare said that the deal between the two companies is a natural fit and is “extremely beneficial to Comshare, its customers, employees and shareholders.”
“With synergistic technologies coupled with access to Geac’s deep financial resources and a loyal global installed base of 18,000 customers, we will be well positioned to better capitalize on a growing market gained through competitive advantage,” Ganster said.
He added that because Geac and Comshare’s customers are synergistic in terms of profile and technology requirements, “we are confident that there will be strong customer demand for our combined solution that will further validate the merit of this acquisition.”
If accepted by Comshare’s shareholders, the acquisition should be final by August 2003, at which time Geac plans to standardize on Comshare MPC for internal use by its worldwide divisions and begin to implement the suite, which will replace Geac’s current budgeting and consolidation applications.
Geac’s acquisition is its latest purchase since buying Extensity Inc., a provider of employee relationship management (ERM) solutions, last March.
Geac can be found on line at www.geac.com. Comshare can be found online at www.comshare.com.