Blog: Craig Schiff

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Another One Bites the Dust: Longview to be Acquired

Exact Software of the Netherlands has announced its intention to acquire Canadian performance management vendor Longview Solutions for a little over US$ 50 million. Not as significant as other recent deals in dollars or the multiple paid, but significant in its ultimate impact on the business performance management market in the U.S. After the acquisitions of SRC, Geac, Cartesis, and OutlookSoft, they were one of the last of the truly independent (not part of an ERP or BI company) BPM application vendors.

At this point in time only Clarity Systems remains as an independent BPM application vendor serving the higher end of the market. In the mid-market independent vendors are thriving with examples such as Adaptive Planning, Alight Planning, Centage, and Prophix just to name a few. Only time will tell if BPM purchasers will continue to seek out best-of breed BPM solutions that are compatible with most ERP and BI solutions, or if BPM will simply become an add-on purchase from their ERP or BI provider.

This merger has a lot going for it. For one thing there is little product overlap. Exact offers ERP, CRM and other solutions to the mid-market with a strong presence in Europe. Longview adds BPM to the mix, a natural and strategically important complement to the other offerings. Longview gains a global reach, a captive audience of over 100,000 existing customers to sell their solutions to, and becomes part of a larger company. The geographic distance may actually work in everyone's favor and allow Longview to maintain some degree of independence. Another unexpected merger, but one with solid upside potential.

Technorati Tags: Longview, Exact Software, Clarity Systems, Adaptive Planning, Alight Planning, Centage, Prophix

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