Briefs: June 6, 2005

SCO POSTS NARROWER LOSS, SALES DROP IN SECOND QUARTER

The company said the loss for the quarter ended April 30 was $1.96 million, or 11 cents a share, compared with $14.73 million, or $1.04 a share, for the same period a year ago. Revenue fell to $9.3 million from $10.1 million a year ago. To help improve its competitive position, the company plans to release later this month the SCO OpenServer 6, which is the result of a multi-year, multimillion-dollar development effort. The product is scheduled for release June 22 at a New York launch event.

"We have continued to focus our Unix business on commercial success in the marketplace and look forward to launching SCO OpenServer 6 later this month," said SCO CEO Darl McBride. "At the same time, our SCOsource business remains committed to pursuing our legal strategy in the courtroom."

LAWSON ACQUIRES INTENTIA, APPOINTS NEW CEO
Lawson Software said it is acquiring Sweden's Intentia International, a business software maker, for $480 million in stock. Lawson also said its CEO is stepping down.

Lawson named Harry Debes to take over as president and CEO of the combined company, succeeding Jay Coughlan, who has held the top position since 2001. Debes, who most recently served as president and CEO of business software firm SPL Worldgroup, will join Lawson on June 15.

The boards of both companies have approved the acquisition, which is expected to close by Dec. 31.

Lawson said Intentia's strength in Europe and Asia-Pacific will complement the company's strong U.S. presence. Lawson targets financial, human resources and retail verticals while Intentia focuses on manufacturing, distribution and maintenance applications. The companies feel that there will be little geographical or product overlap. The merged firm would field 3,500 employees, serving about 4,000 customers.

Richard Lawson, the company's founder and chairman, will serve with Intentia Chairman Romesh Wadhwani as co-chairmen of the new business.

D&H PARTNERS EMBRACE WINDOWS 64-BIT EDITION
D&H Distributing is seeing strong interest from system builders in Microsoft's new Windows 64-bit Edition.

Some 350 system builders and solution providers have signed up for a training session and the number is growing, said Dan Schwab, vice president of marketing at D&H. More than 1,000 people are expected to attend D&H's annual Mid-Atlantic show in Hershey, Pa., this week.

"Based on the huge demand and questions around the 64-bit desktop launch, we added the session after [an agenda was set]. It shows that it's a real opportunity," Schwab said. "We had tremendous demand when [Microsoft] launched an integrated 64-bit solution. Its resellers and system builders [are interested in the technology]. It's on desktop and on the server."

Also on tap, according to Schwab: training on Intel's Entertainment PC, and a Microsoft/Intel seminar on Server Solutions for Small Business.