Telstra Corp is to increase its shareholding in one of Australia’s top software houses, Solution 6, to 18%. In a deal which will see its 60%-owned subsidiary Lawpoint Pty Ltd sold to the accountancy software specialist for about A$40m ($25.4m) in cash and shares, Telstra both boosts its Solution 6 shareholding and adds value to the company in which it is the largest single shareholder.
Online legal information provider Lawpoint will bring with it about 3,000 customers, mainly lawyers and accountants, as well as providing access to searches on government databases such as Australian company business names, land titles, conveyancing documentation and bankruptcy data.
The addition of Lawpoint will strengthen Solution 6’s e-commerce strategy by adding an online legal operation to the existing accountancy portal and providing CMS/Data knowledge management software for the legal profession. Solution 6’s chief executive Chris Tyler said the acquisition could be the first step in developing a portal for the legal profession, similar to the eccountancy.com online site for accountants launched in August.
Tyler said the acquisition will position the company to take advantage of the convergence between the accounting and legal professions. Accounting, legal and financial services firms are all converging and that’s the space we need to be in as well because we’re about powering these people, he said.
He said that Lawpoint will initially operate as a separate entity, but would ultimately have features of the products merged into a common code base to create a solution that catered for the emerging accounting/legal professional services firm.
