D&B Software goes to Geac at a bargain price

Geac Computer, a $150m (#91m) Canadian company, last week became the new owner of Dun & Bradstreet Software, apparently for a knock-down price. Geac announced that it will split the software house into three separate operating units.

Geac, a diversified software group, is active in several vertical markets.

It will create a 'host division' responsible for D&B's mainframe customers, along with a client-server unit to market the Smartstream line of decision support and workflow applications. An international operation will sell and support both product lines outside North America.

Geac bought the business for $190m - $20m less than the figure Dun & Bradstreet Corporation, D&B's former parent, claimed to have been on offer from finance house Bain Capital in June.

But according to Mark Wells, UK managing director of Geac and formerly managing director of D&B Software UK, the company had been under pressure to sell the business as soon as possible. 'They had no choice but to sell by the end of October. Geac could move faster than Bain,' said Wells.

'Obviously, the process of seeking ownership for the software group took a long time.

It took 10 months longer than we wanted or expected but the result has been excellent.'

Wells added that the company had sold $3m-worth of software in the UK in the week of the sale, compared with $500,000-worth in the uncertain conditions that existed beforehand.

Smartstream, a client-server workflow-enabled business software package, has been the one bright spot in D&B Software's chequered recent history.

Smartstream business rose from $38m in 1994 to $107m in 1995. According to Wells, it is now a $100m business, growing at 150% a year and currently accounting for about a third of the company's business.

'We have about a 4% share of the client-server marketplace in the UK now and hope to double or even triple this as Geac,' he said.

Additional reporting by VNU Newswire.