Private equity firm Golden Gate Capital has acquired Geac Computer Corp. Ltd. in an all-cash deal valued at approximately $1.0 billion.
“The most important trend in our industry is consolidation,” says Charles Jones, president and CEO of Geac. “This economic paradigm cannot be ignored.” Success in the software industry today, he explains, will derive from the strength of size and scale – “the scale to invest in new products, in marketing and in a global sales force.”
Golden Gate Capital plans to “aggressively support” the Geac business units. Upon completion of the acquisition, Geac will be reorganized into two separate Golden Gate Capital portfolio companies.
As part of the reorganization, Infor, an existing Golden Gate Capital funded company, will acquire Geac’s ERP software products – including System21, Runtime, RatioPlan, Streamline, and Management Data – and the employees who support them will move to Infor. As a provider of enterprise software exclusively focused on the manufacturing and distribution industries, Infor delivers integrated solutions in such areas as supply chain planning, relationship management, demand management, ERP, warehouse management, marketing-driven distribution and business intelligence.
