Line56 has a lengthy analysis of SSA Global's acquisition strategy, largely favorable, based on impressions from its recent user conference in Orlando. Line56 sums up the strategy as, "Today it is cheaper to acquire customers than to sell to them, and it is cheaper to buy technology than build it." Without a lot of fanfare, the company has been taking advantage of weaknesses in current market conditions to acquire software vendors that have substantial customer populations. In the process, it has been laying out a roadmap to preserve the technology investments of those customers. Customers these days, not eager to undergo large scale conversions to new systems, are warming to the message. As a result, SSA Global has now become the fourth largest ERP vendor, behind SAP, Oracle, and PeopleSoft.
Separately, vnunet.com is reporting that SSA has already finalized an agreement to acquire another ERP vendor (unnamed) but will not announce it until March 2004 because of the need to first integrate Baan into its offerings. In an interview, CEO Mike Greenough indicated that SSA's next acquisition will be of a privately held ERP vendor and will extend SSA's user base in a new vertical market. He further indicated that there are five to six other ERP vendors that SSA could go after. The report notes that Greenough is already on the record as stating an interest in both Manugistics and i2.
Read the whole article on vnunet.com for more details.
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