The ERP Graveyard Blog

Let's go Dutch: Golden Gate to buy Exact for Infor?

Ned Lilly, xTuple — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:30:00 +0000

Dutch treat (NOUN) ... An outing, as for dinner or a movie, in which all persons pay their own expenses. (American Heritage Dictionary)

Somehow this one seems to have escaped the notice of most of the US tech press: Exact Holdings (based in Amsterdam) is talking to private equity firms about a sale, including Infor backer Golden Gate Capital. This article in the Financial Times has the skinny.

For those of you keeping score, that would mean a second tombstone for the venerable Macola ERP apps, and a third for the trio of small-company products acquired most recently from Kewill: MAX, Alliance/MFG, and JobBOSS.

SAP buys Business Objects

Ned Lilly, xTuple — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 14:56:00 +0000

This one's all over the financial press, so I won't bother with any links right now. But it's worth asking what's really driving this. As lots of people have observed, it's a pretty dramatic strategic turnaround for SAP - especially on the heels of the Business ByDesign product announcement (which seemed to underscore their internal-growth plan).

So are they just playing catch-up to Larry Ellison? Or is it a deeper problem? The market expects some pretty big revenue numbers from SAP, and there aren't but so many $100MM software sales out there to be had. OK, so they'll launch the ByDesign midmarket play, but sheesh, that's a lot of volume they'll need to generate.

Maybe cheaper just to buy the revenue.

So, will they end up buying Infor eventually, as AMR's Bruce Richardson and others hasve suggested? I was skeptical, but less so now. Haven't seen that S-1 filing yet. Just think of all the trees we could save by just fast-forwarding straight to that deal.

Burp! That little piece of Syteline tastes like a bad mortgage!

Ned Lilly, xTuple — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 21:49:00 +0000

In an interview with Managing Automation, Infor CEO Jim Schaper says they're going to take a little breather from gobbling up software companies. Sadly, it seems the formerly voracious PEGs who funded the takeover spree until now are now worried about the overall state of the debt markets.

It's not fair! Just because Capital One sent all those credit card applications to unemployed people, that doesn't mean we should stop rounding up ERP corpses! What's an ERP graveyard without fresh carrion? :(

Oh well. Schaper does say Infor will concentrate on "preparing the company for an initial public stock offering, which could take place within the next 12 months." That's when the PEGs will cash out, of course. And that gives me an idea.

We've heard similar rumblings from the other end of the spectrum, open source CRM startup SugarCRM. Sugar will do maybe $15 million in revenues this year, but is in a hot space and growing like kudzu organically. Infor will do $2.3 billion (with a B) - that's 153 times more.

Anyone want to bet which company goes out first?

And if you really want to place a bet, talk to me about comparative valuation ranges for the offerings. Comment away!

Soft demand for Soft Brands (or, "please buy us, SAP")

Ned Lilly, xTuple — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 13:47:00 +0000

Curiouser and curiouser. After spending the past couple of years batting eyelids at SAP with the "Fourth Shift SAP Business One Edition for Small Manufacturers Who Want to Staple Together Two Completely Dissimilar Legacy Windows Products," now Soft Brands has quietly turned off the lights on the solo Fourth Shift product altogether. Managing Automation has the story. This might be the first Graveyard case where there's nothing left to buy in the end: a nearly-cost-free de facto acquisition.

Oracle's Pretty Late Move

Ned Lilly, xTuple — Thu, 17 May 2007 02:05:00 +0000

The long-expected PLM acquisition from Oracle came down today, as Agile Corp. fell into the arms of the Redwood Shores serial acquirer. Some good notes from MA's coverage:

"over the past two years, Agile has had difficulty achieving consistent profitability"
"Soon after taking over as CEO in January 2006, however, [CEO Jay] Fulcher also began searching for potential buyers for Agile"
AMR's Jim Shepherd: "It's not really a surprise that Oracle ended up with Agile. The surprise is that it took this long."

Fulcher trots out the familiar canard of CEO's who decide a sale/payday is the best strategic option for a software company that misses its numbers: "Scale is such an imperative in the enterprise software space," he said. "We were at a run rate of $134 million, which is a very difficult size to be and still maintain all the things that are important about being a public company."

Infor loyalty oath, cont'd

Ned Lilly, xTuple — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 21:31:00 +0000

CRN reports that serial grave-digger Infor is really putting the screws to its partners, to the tune of one point of margin for every day they don't turn in their exclusivity agreement. Yikes!

(For a more partner-friendly option, click here!)

MS: No more, thanks, we're full

Ned Lilly, xTuple — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 18:10:00 +0000

Here's a little counter-programming. The new head of Microsoft's BS division (um, that's short for Business Solutions), says they don't want to buy any more ERP systems, they've got enough.

Oh, and despite what you might have read below, Project Green is alive and well in Denmark:

A 900-person team there is developing the four products in the Dynamics family: AX, NAV, GP and SL.

That team -- an increasing number of which include non-Danes, thanks to flexible immigration laws in Denmark -- is taking each of those variations and merging them onto one code base, a long-term project that Andersen said could run through 2012 or even 2015.

Andersen downplayed the end date, saying that customers are "all going to get to the same place at the same point."

Huh?

SOA: The little TLA that could

Ned Lilly, xTuple — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 20:05:00 +0000

(Or, "It's not easy being green")

The skeptics among you might think that Service Oriented Architecture is just another Three Letter Acronym ... but think again. In the same 24 hour news cycle, this powerful concept has provided a new face for the Frankenstein monster of graveyard acquisitions that is Infor (see "Infor Announces SOA Roadmap" at Managing Automation) and a fig leaf to cover up the rather embarassing nakedness of the Microsoft Business Solutions code sprint to rationalize their own four ERP product lines (see "Project Green is Dead" at eWeek).

Translation for the buzzword-impaired: rather than rewrite all these products from scratch with modern technologies and a unified vision, both companies will just make a halfhearted attempt to draw connections between the various pieces.

Sigh. I liked it better when it was called EAI.

Update 4/16: Renee Boucher Ferguson at eWeek thinks the little TTC (TLA That Could) has brought down Oracle's Fusion Apps too. Dang! Is there anything this thing can't do?

Oracle to beat SAP with $3.3B Hyperion stick

Ned Lilly, xTuple — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 14:23:00 +0000

OK, so maybe they're just softening them up before closing in for the kill. Here's the money quote from Chuck Phillips:

"Oracle already has PeopleSoft HR, Siebel CRM, G-Log, Demantra, i-flex, Oracle Retail, and Oracle Fusion Middleware installed at SAP's largest ERP customers. Now Oracle's Hyperion software will be the lens through which SAP's most important customers view and analyze their underlying SAP ERP data."

Wow. Here's CRN coverage, NY Times, and C/Net.

Larry hungry for German?

Ned Lilly, xTuple — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 15:41:00 +0000

OK, we don't believe it either. But what if Oracle really is looking at SAP?

Graveyard > Magic Quadrant

Ned Lilly, xTuple — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 13:56:00 +0000

Frank Scavo, over at The Enterprise System Spectator, reports that Gartner Group has decided that there aren't enough midmarket ERPs left to bother doing one of their famous Magic Quadrant analyses.

Wow.

Will the last one left turn out the lights?

SAP acquires Factory Edge

Ned Lilly, xTuple — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 22:15:00 +0000

When your blog is called the ERP Graveyard, with images of tombstones and the stench of death everywhere, there's a tendency, perhaps, to accentuate the negative. Today's news brings a nice example of what appears to be more of a positive, strategic acquisition by SAP: the Lean specialist Factory Edge, which after all got seed funding from SAP's own venture fund.

Managing Automation has the details. Give SAP's Sudipta Bhattacharya credit for telling the story well: "We started out two years ago and said shop floor to top floor is key. Phase one involved support for the ISA-95 standard. Next, we needed Lighthammer to get visibility capabilities and analytics. Now, with Factory Logic, we will give people on the plant floor the ability to have a schedule."

Now, if SAP turns around and buys Infor, as Jim Shepherd at AMR has suggested, I reserve the right to take these nice comments back.

Clock ticking on Infor loyalty oath

Ned Lilly, xTuple — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 18:32:00 +0000

Computer Reseller News has this amusing piece noting that Infor partners have been given until December 1 to clear their shelves of competing products. Write your own joke about intra-Infor product competition.

Lots of delicious quotes and anecdotes in this story, but here's my favorite:

Another partner who has received the letter said he and others are trying to get a look at the vendor's new reseller contract to better evaluate the situation.

So we want you to promise total exclusivity and loyal devotion to us, and in return, we'll get you a copy of your contract real soon now!

Very good analysis of PEG-funded graveyard activity

Ned Lilly, xTuple — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 14:20:00 +0000

The redoubtable Jim Shepherd and his team at AMR Research have published a research note that lays out a nice overview of the motivations and activity of private equity groups like Golden Gate Capital in the ERP Graveyard market. It appears to be available to the general public here - highly recommended.

He concludes that the most logical exit for Golden Gate investors, for example, might well be a sale to SAP. But I'd prefer their Redwood Shores competitor - because of course, you could then call the company Inforacle. Take a look at their logo - they've already got the big red O.

Infor: No time to diet

Ned Lilly, xTuple — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 17:34:00 +0000

As the powerful digestive juices of Golden Gate Capital complete their work on erstwhile competitor SSA Global, the ever-expanding Infor let slip that it also found time to acquire Extensity and Systems Union Group - adding more financial and reporting applications to the stew.

But the real headline seems to be that Infor now has combined revenues of $2.1 billion, which as the press release helpfully notes, is "more than Infor's two largest competitors combined in its target markets." Someone in the Microsoft legal department might want to alert Neelie Kroes (heir to the Brussels throne vacated by Mario Monti), if only to throw her off their scent for a while.

One other fun note on the Infor press release - the largest paragraph by far is devoted to a description of the various credit facilities used in the deals, and the smorgasbord of bankers and lawyers who continue to feed at the Infor trough.

Battle of the MS-PEGGIES is over

Ned Lilly, xTuple — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 16:03:00 +0000

Well, that was quick. Seems the idea of Private Equity Group (PEG)-funded takeover shops based on Microsoft technology (MS-PEG, get it?) was so compelling that its two leading practicioners have rushed into each other's arms. Technically, it's Made2Manage (Capri, DTR, ADS, Cimnet, AXIS, Encompix, and most recently Onyx) who is acquiring Intuitive (SupplyWorks, Relevant/INFIMACS).

Also disappointingly, this breaks M2M's streak of acquiring vendors with the letter X in the name.

So we're down to one MS-PEGGY. Sigh. I had such hopes for the acronym. I guess this just begs the question - who will be M2M's Kermit? Is Infor still hungry?

This all stopped making sense for customers a long time ago. Now it's clearly down to the economics of milking revenue streams and eliminating overhead - which is a decidedly short-term proposition, with an eye toward a financial exit. So I repeat, it begs the question: As customers get more and more worried, and defect to (ahem) more compelling options from the world of open source, who's going to buy these things after the attrition?

Update: Here's Managing Automation on the deal, which suggests the purchase price was somewhere in the $40 millions, nearly 4x revenue.

M2CRM

Ned Lilly, xTuple — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 19:51:00 +0000

So the MS-PEGGY managing Made2Manage has entered a white knight bid for Onyx CRM. Good news for the Onyx board, who didn't really like CDC's offer and subsequent behavior. Managing Automation coverage here, local Seattle angle here.

But get this from the Onyx CEO. I've got to hope she was misquoted somehow:

With stronger monetary support from Battery Ventures and Thoma Cressey, the deal would make Onyx a larger player in the business, Anderson said. Customers need to have competition in the realm of enterprise product lines.

"I think that this kind of consolidation ... is very good for clients because clients need choices," she said.

Umm... don't rollups like the MS-PEGGIES give clients fewer choices?

Updated Graveyard Scorecard

Ned Lilly, xTuple — Wed, 31 May 2006 21:23:00 +0000

We've brought the official ERP Graveyard Scorecard (TM) up to date with the latest activity, particularly the InforSSA grab. Comments and suggestions, welcome as always. Some of our Tier 2 / Tier 3 distinctions are probably debateable ... but we stand by our characterization as everyone but Microsoft (and OpenMFG of course) as "Infor bait."

Odd comment from Plattner

Ned Lilly, xTuple — Thu, 18 May 2006 20:29:00 +0000

SAP co-founder Hasso Plattner raised a few eyebrows today when he said he could only envision being acquired by IBM, Microsoft, or Google (News.com) Who else has that kind of market cap? I guess he could have mentioned Wal-Mart or Exxon Mobil, if they want to put some of those profits to good use :)

The Inforssa!

Ned Lilly, xTuple — Mon, 15 May 2006 17:14:00 +0000

Wow. In a clear bid to settle the question of who's #3, Infor Global is acquiring SSA Global. The combined entity will be called The Global Inforssa Global. Here's a quick link. Here's more from Managing Automation.

JDA Software buys Manugistics

Ned Lilly, xTuple — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 14:49:00 +0000

... and will be taking on some new debt to do it. This on the heels of a "disappointing" quarter. More...

CDC sees c360 CRM

Ned Lilly, xTuple — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 13:38:00 +0000

"Not waiting for a response on its sweetened offer to acquire Onyx Software Inc., CDC Software Inc. late last week agreed to buy another customer relationship management (CRM) software vendor to advance its growth-by-acquisition desires." This article at Managing Automation suggests there's actually a ERP-centric strategy behind the acquisition binge!

Battle of the MS-PEGGIES

Ned Lilly, xTuple — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 11:27:00 +0000

That's my new name for PEG (Private Equity Group) funded takeover shops formerly known as Made2Manage and Intuitive. Both companies had previously built their business around an all-Microsoft platform bet (do some Googling for their crowing about being first to implement .NET and the like). Well, look what it got 'em. Run up on the rocks, and acquired by PEGs who told them, like Michael Corleone said to Mo Green, "you're unlucky. We think we can do better."

So two pieces of news for the MS-PEGGIES. Intuitive yesterday announced they were acquiring Relevant Business Systems. Write your own punch line here. (Sorry - that was a cheap one. Relevant's INFIMACS is a well-known solution in the A&D market). This follows last month's pickup of SupplyWorks, which your host had somehow overlooked.

Made2Manage, not to be outdone, last week announced its purchase of ETO specialist Encompix. In case you missed the point, the company press release refers to its own "acquisition spree" in the headline, and helpfully notes, "The acquisition marks Made2Manage Systems’ fifth purchase in the last 20 months." Sheesh.

Spreadsheet of Graveyard deals

Ned Lilly, xTuple — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 15:22:00 +0000

Thanks to Teresa Jones, Senior Research Analyst at the Butler Group in the UK, for compiling and making available to ERP Graveyard readers this spreadsheet of dates and deal terms for much of what's transpired in the past fifteen years or so. We'll do our best to update it along with the Scorecard - and if we get inspired, might end up combining the two with mouseover ALT TEXT tags or something like that.

CDC (fka ChinaDotCom) grabs supply chain product, hungers for more

Ned Lilly, xTuple — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 18:46:00 +0000

The acquirer of Ross, Pivotal, and IMI has struck again. But here's the money quote from Steven Chan, acting CEO: "JRG is one of several acquisition targets that we are actively evaluating and negotiating and look to conclude this quarter. The acquisition of JRG reflects our commitment to leveraging our strong balance sheet of US$212 million in net cash to continue acquiring synergistic companies and products."

OK, so $212MM doesn't buy you QAD or IFS. But who will it get you?