FatWire Software plans to acquire the content management software business of divine in a move that will expand FatWire's indirect channels and accelerate its push into international markets, the company said Monday.
Privately held FatWire did not disclose how much it is paying for divine's content management assets but said the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Boston had approved the sale of the assets to Saratoga Partners, which plans to transfer the assets to FatWire.
Divine, which filed for bankruptcy protection in February, had acquired OpenMarket content management software as part of an acquisition spree that initially included the marchFirst integration firm.
FatWire executives said the company planned to continue to support divine's J2EE-based Content Server, still widely known as OpenMarket, and Participant Server, formerly Eprise, which runs on a Microsoft platform.
"The company has always been a very respected competitor and I think they complement us on a number of levels," said James Rothstein, senior vice president of marketing at FatWire, Mineola, N.Y..
Both companies target Fortune 500 customers and have J2EE-based products, which will enable FatWire to merge the code bases over time, he said.
"We have a very unique architecture and method of working with a relational database, and we bring a very strong foundation as well as very good user visibility," Rothstein said. "What they bring to the table is things like word integration, visual workflow, some strong functionality around transformation and some good catalog experience."
Perhaps more importantly, divine has a stronger international presence in both Europe and Asia and well as a larger integrator channel, which FatWire hopes to leverage.
FatWire has about 18 integration partners and has been adding to its indirect channels through a relationship with Sun Microsystems, which recently began bundling a light version of FatWire's content management software with its Sun ONE software, said Jim Holleran, senior vice president of strategic alliances at FatWire.
While operating its own integration business, divine still had about 70 integration partners for its content management products. Holleran said the few divine partners that he has talked with so far were excited about no longer having to worry about competing with divine's integration business.
He also said that seven of FatWire's partners already had relationships with divine and that now both partner groups will benefit from the enhanced product line.
"Our model has gone from pure direct over the past two years to now about 80 percent of our deals are partnered up," he said. "The channel is growing pretty fast. Twenty-five percent of our pipeline right now is coming specifically from [systems integrators], and my understanding is that, from [divine's] side, it's a lot more."
