Lawson acquires enterprise-software vendor Intentia

Lawson Software Inc. is acquiring Intentia International AB, a Swedish enterprise software company, in an all-stock deal valued at US$480 million and already approved by both boards of directors, Lawson said Thursday.

The deal is expected to close by the end of this year after which the company will operate under the Lawson name with U.S. headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota, which is Lawson's current base, and international headquarters in Stockholm. When the acquisition is completed, Lawson will have more than 3,500 employees with about 4,000 customers in 40 countries and be the largest enterprise applications supplier for the midmarket, the company said.

It will offer business applications for services, manufacturing, distribution and maintenance across a range of industries and will target midsize and large enterprises, Lawson said. Products will include core ERP (enterprise resource planning), performance management, supply chain and asset management applications. Core Intentia products will be supported, and also have new releases and enhancements, for at least five years.

Richard Lawson, who co-founded Lawson Software in 1975, and Romesh Wadhwani, chairman of Intentia, will be co-chairmen after the acquisition is finalized. Jay Coughlan, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Lawson will leave the company after a transition period, and Harry Debes will take over in those roles on June 15.

Debes has been an enterprise-software senior executive for more than 20 years, heading Geac Computer Corp. Ltd.'s Asia-Pacific operations, Geac Enterprise Solutions for the Americas and U.S. field operations for J.D. Edwards, including sales and services. When J.D. Edwards was acquired by PeopleSoft Inc., he went on to become president and CEO of SPL WorldGroup, which provides enterprise software to electrical utilities.

Intentia has a strong presence in Europe and Asia-Pacific, so that when the acquisition is complete about 45 percent of Lawson's revenue will come from Europe, 45 percent from North America and 10 percent from Asia-Pacific, Lawson said.

IDG News Service

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