Software AG will be shipping its Tamino native XML information server by the end of September, completing its second cycle of products, and is planning one or two acquisitions for announcement by the end of the year.
Chris Horak, the Darmstadt, Germany company’s vice-president of product marketing, said that Tamino rounds off the product cycle which started out with SAG’s Bolero application development environment and the EntireX middleware providing DCOM for mainframes and Unix. The company says it is also close to concluding the three-stage reorganization of its health financials portfolio, which is culminating with the spin-off of its US subsidiary SAGA, reinvigorating its product cycle and positioning itself for growth.
The third objective is to be achieved by acquisitions, funded at least in part with equity, thanks to the company’s flotation on Frankfurt’s Neuer Markt earlier this year. These buys, said Horak, will be mainly companies able to implement its software, such as Paris-based Core Technologies, and he predicted a couple more by year’s end.
The regions that Software AG will target in its search for potential acquisitions are Europe (other than Germany, from which it currently derives 47% of its revenue) and North America, which accounts for 16% of revenue. The US would be considerably more, around 40%, had the company not shed SAGA as part of its lifesaving restructuring process.
The company will clearly want to increase its North American revenue, and that will be done, Horak explained, by getting more visibility in Silicon Valley, in order to build relationships. For the next three-stage plan of action, to be unveiled towards the end of this year, we will need a portfolio of 10 to 15 partners building on our technology,’ he said.
