A busy day for acquisitions: first it came across the wires that Tata Consultancy Services is buying the business process outsourcing arm of Citigroup for $505m. Then Symantec announced the acquisition of online messaging and web security firm MessageLabs for $695m, and in the last hour or so Oracle announced it is buying project portfolio management firm Primavera.
An interesting point to note is that against the backdrop of the credit crisis and spiralling stock market valuations, both the TCS and Symantec buys are being paid for in cash. The price or specific terms of Oracle’s Primavera acquisition have not been disclosed…[click continue reading for more on this entry]…
We wrote a news story based on the acquisition of Citigroup’s business process outsourcing (BPO) arm earlier today, here.
As for Symantec’s MessageLabs buy, Symantec said it, “gains a leadership position in the rapidly growing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) segment and strengthens its lead in the messaging security market.”
It claims MessageLabs is the number-one provider of online messaging security worldwide with more than eight million end users at more than 19,000 clients ranging from small business to the Fortune 500.
“Symantec will capitalise on cross-selling and up-selling its existing SaaS offerings of backup, storage and online remote access into the MessageLabs customer base,” the company said. “And future SaaS offerings, leveraging Symantec technology in data loss prevention, compliance, endpoint security and archiving, will be enhanced by MessageLabs’ expertise in SaaS sales, operations and support.”
Oracle, meanwhile, is picking up Primavera, a company that has had at least one major change of direction since it was founded in 1983. Initially calling itself a professional services automation (PSA) vendor it changed its spots and became a project portfolio management (PPM) company, thanks in part to the acquisitions of Pertmaster and Prosight in December 2006.
Today Oracle says Primavera’s PPM software helps companies propose, prioritize and select project investments, and plan, manage and control the most complex projects and project portfolios.
Oracle said that together with its own applications and infrastructure software, it expects to provide the, “first comprehensive enterprise project portfolio management solution that helps companies allocate the best resources, reduce costs, meet delivery dates and ultimately make better decisions, all by using real-time data.”
