Infor to Buy Datastream for $216 Million

Published: January 9, 2006

by Alex Woodie

Infor kicked off the new year in a fashion very similar to the way it finished off 2005: by announcing plans to buy a software company. The Atlanta software company, which is arguably the largest vendor of OS/400 applications in the industry, last week unveiled plans to snap up Datastream, a developer of software that helps companies monitor the performance of their capital assets, such as factories, truck fleets, and machinery.

Infor says Datastream's software, which runs on Unix and Windows servers and utilizes an Oracle or Microsoft database, will be a welcome addition for its current stable of ERP customers, which are predominantly in the asset-intensive manufacturing and distribution industries. Datastream 7i provides functionality in the areas of asset tracking, usage monitoring, preventative maintenance, and tracking warranties and warranty claims. The enterprise version of the software adds key performance indicators to the mix, among other capabilities.

Jim Schaper, Infor's chairman and chief executive officer, says the acquisition shows that Infor is determined to satisfy the desire of customers to have a single software provider. He says that "by assembling and integrating best-of-breed solutions and professionals with deep industry knowledge" into its current product base, Infor is "filling a void in the market for customers that want one source for all of their industry-specific enterprise applications."

Infor currently has about 18,000 customers as the result of the acquisition of various ERP vendors over the last several years, including MAPICS, Daly.Commerce, Brain, and Lilly Software Associates. It will gain 6,700 more with Datastream, and have operations in 140 countries. Infor will grow even more when its acquisition of Geac is complete. That acquisition, which it announced in November, will bring the company Geac's System21 ERP product and about 1,500 additional OS/400 server-using customers (see Infor's Owners Gobble Up Geac for $1 Billion). The acquisition of Geac by Infor's majority owner, the private equity group Golden Gate Capital, is expected to close by the middle of the month.

Infor expects the acquisition of Datastream, which has been approved by the boards of both companies, to close in the second quarter of 2006, following approval from Datastream stockholders. The offer is for $10.26 per share, or about $216 million, to be paid to stockholders of the Greenville, South Carolina, company. Infor's subsidiary Magellan Holdings will be the official acquiring party of record for Infor.