Walker Interactive Systems Inc yesterday announced acquisition of Basingstoke, Hampshire-based software company Financial Solutions Ltd for $12m in cash. Other terms of the agreement were not disclosed and Walker expects a pre-tax charge of $12m in the June 1994 quarter associated with the purchase. Walker, based in San Francisco, will run the acquired company as a wholly-owned subsidiary called Walker Financial Solutions Ltd and will integrate its operation with its UK arm. Walker Ltd will stay in its Basingstoke offices and its current complement of 65 staff is likely to be expanded by research and development recruits. Walker wanted the company for its Open1 software, now renamed Aptos. Walker say Aptos will complement its Redwood package, expected in the first quarter of 1995, by offering a suite of client-server financial applications designed for medium-sized companies and, of more interest to Walker, departments within larger corporations. Together the products will comprise the Walker Enterprise Series, but they can be bought separately. Steve Allen, chief executive of Walker International reckons Our strength has been to supply large, sophisticated business entities, irrespective of the systems they use, but what we have discovered is that we cannot provide the same solutions to much smaller divisions. Walker, which said it had preferred to buy the technology rather than develop it itself, is now working on a rules-based artificial intelligence agents that can process data between the two systems. It is expected at the same time as Redwood. Walker Information Network, to be released next quarter, will enable users to interrogate either Redwood or Aptos. Redwood has been in development for the last three and a half years; when available, it will function on large corporations’ client-server systems. Walker believes that Aptos will enable it to is keep its large corporate customers while expanding the software it can sell to them, by providing systems for single departments. In that respect, it will be competing with the likes of Ross Systems Inc, Coda Plc and Platinum Software Corp, but Walker says its combination offers scalability and functionality across an entire corporation, use on differing systems and a single point of contact for support and information.
