Briefs: March 21, 2005

RETEK TUG-OF-WAR RAGES ON

"We believe that SAP's offer is a good deal for Retek stockholders, and our board of directors has unanimously recommended that it be accepted," Retek CEO Marty Leestma said in a joint statement released by the two companies.

Oracle late last Thursday offered $11.25 per share for Retek, trumping SAP's $11-per-share bid earlier in the day.

Oracle valued its latest all-cash bid at $669 million, nearly two times Retek's market value before the auction began. SAP's current bid is worth $654 million. Oracle President Charles Phillips said SAP's recent acquisitions suggest that Oracle is dictating the direction the industry is taking. "It's a change in their strategy," Phillips said. "They didn't want to make acquisitions; they said they wanted to innovate. Well, all of a sudden they changed their minds so they're reacting to what we're doing in the marketplace."

BEST SOFTWARE OFFERS UP SOME SAGE ADVICE
Best Software will no longer bear a different name from its parent company, Sage Group. The North American subsidiary of the London-based software vendor said it will fully adopt the Sage name and mark by March 2006. In North America, Sage has been operating as Best Software since 2001. In its most recent fiscal year, Sage reported global revenue of $1.24 billion. It offers a range of products including those for accounting, CRM and payroll, which are sold through a worldwide network of 21,000 resellers.

In a statement, CEO Paul Walker said, "The Sage brand is synonymous with excellence in accounting and business management software for millions of SMBs around the globe."

Best Software sells Act, Peachtree, MAS 90, SalesLogix and Simply Accounting software. In addition, Sage is the leading provider of accounting software for SMBs in the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Germany and South Africa.

NETSUITE ADDS CUSTOMIZATION TO ERP, CRM PRODUCT LINES
Software-as-a-service vendor NetSuite last Thursday released new software that adds integration, customization and application-building capabilities to its applications. The new NetFlex software is built into the company's line of ERP, CRM and e-commerce products, leveling the playing field between NetSuite and its main rival, Salesforce.com.

NetFlex AppBuilder lets nonprogrammers build entirely new applications on top of the NetSuite platform. The capabilities are similar to those touted by Salesforce.com for its sforce development environment.

"The difference between sforce and AppBuilder is we give you point-and-click tools that will let you build a brand-new application out of NetSuite," said NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson.

In contrast, Salesforce.com's sforce requires programmers be skilled in environments such as Borland Software's JBuilder or Microsoft's Visual Basic.

PALMONE REPORTS PROFIT DUE TO GROWING TREO SALES
PalmOne last Thursday reported another profitable quarter lifted by sales of its popular Treo smartphone and handhelds. The company said it expects that smartphones will soon account for half of its revenue.

PalmOne reported net income for the quarter ended Feb. 25 of $4.4 million on total revenue of $285.3 million. Total revenue was up about 18 percent compared with the same quarter a year ago, according to the company.

The company said it shipped 938,000 units, including the Treo smartphone and its Zire and Tungsten handhelds, during the quarter but did not say how many of each model it shipped. However, sell-through of the Treo, or the number of units that go through the distribution channel and actually wind up in customers' hands, increased by 50 percent, acting PalmOne CEO Ed Colligan said in a statement.

The company said it expects revenue for the next quarter to be between $320 million and $330 million.

ACER LAUNCHES THREE NEW PRESTIGE LCD DISPLAYS
Acer last Thursday launched three new LCD monitors in its Prestige line, including a 20-inch wide-screen model that sells for less than $650.

The 17-, 19- and 20-inch displays feature contrast ratios of up to 600:1, and offer VGA, DVI-D and AV video input. Their response times are as fast as 12 milliseconds, according to Acer.

Response times measure how quickly a pixel changes from one color to another and is important for graphics-intensive applications such as games, presentations and photo and video processing.

The Acer displays are available now in North America at prices of $329 for the 17-inch AL1732d, $489 for the 19-inch AL1932d and $649 for the 20-inch AL2032wd.

IBM FINALIZES CORIO PURCHASE
IBM finalized its $182 million deal to buy Corio, a pioneer in delivering enterprise applications over the Internet. IBM announced in January it would buy the ASP for IBM's hosted business run by IBM Global Services. That news was the first indication of IGS' growing interest in the midmarket business space. At the time of the announcement, Corio had 28 regional systems integrator partners helping to provide technical and functional services to its midsize customers. Corio CEO George Kadifa will become general manager of the new IBM software delivery business, which combines 3,000 IBM sales staff with 400 Corio employees.

Mike Riegel, director of on demand for IGS, said in January that IGS would welcome Corio's partners as its own. IGS did not disclose how many of those partners have been added to its partner network.

"So far, they are leaving Corio largely untouched," said Marc Hebert, executive vice president of marketing and alliances at Corio partner Sierra Atlantic. Hebert said that he is in weekly contact with Corio but has yet to hear from IGS. "I could try harder to reach them, I know. But it's hard to know if it's worth the time to try to break in."

ORACLE CFO EXITS AFTER ONLY EIGHT MONTHS ON THE JOB
Oracle CFO Harry You is leaving the company after just eight months, the company said late last Thursday. You is leaving Oracle to become CEO of BearingPoint, a major industry consultant with 16,000 employees. Before joining Oracle last July to replace Jeffrey Henley, You spent three years as CFO of Accenture.

"We wish Harry good fortune in his new job and look forward to partnering with him and BearingPoint for years to come," said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said in a statement.

Oracle is now turning over the CFO's responsibilities to Co-President Safra Catz, a former investment banker, until a full-time replacement is found.