Best Sells Off AccountMate
"We are a highly acquisitive company and don't like to signal areas of valuation unless we have to," explained Ron Verni, president and CEO of Best Software, headquartered in Irvine, Calif. On Tuesday, Best had announced completion of its Accpac International acquisition.
"We could have made more money if we sold it to a group of financial investors, but we want to make sure we have continuity with the customers," he said. "This allows us to keep that continuity by selling the software to the existing management team." Verni said buyers include AccountMate's existing vice president of sales.
"If they sold [AccountMate] back to the management group, then I'm happy for them," said Randy Johnston, executive vice president of Network Management Group, Hutchinson, Kan. "Given the potential AccountMate has, someone can turn it into a healthy business that can thrive for a good, long time to come."
AccountMate is unusual in the accounting market in that customers buy the software's source code rather than a more fully formed application. AccountMate has about 900 channel partners around the world.
According to Verni, the Sage Group acquired Softline for its South African and Australian operations, and for one of Softline's three products, BusinessVision. "BusinessVision is predominantly a Canadian company, and it fills the gap in the Canadian market between Simply Accounting at the entry level and Accpac Advantage," Verni said.
The company said BusinessVision will be introduced to Best's business partner channel at next month's Insights 2004 partner conference in Orlando. The product will become part of Best's Mid-Market division, under Accpac's new general manager, Susan Sheridan.
Last month Best sold off the third piece of the Softline portfolio, Datafaction, aimed at high net worth individuals in the entertainment industry.