Electronic Data Processing Plc has had its shopping craving satisfied for now with the purchase of BML (Office Computers) Ltd, a software company addressing similar markets to Electronic Data, but on a smaller scale. The price is ú3.3m in cash and loan notes for a company with turnover of ú3.9m in 1995 and pre-tax profits of ú415,000 in the year to March 1995. That is all that is known about BML, as nobody was available at Electronic to even tell us where BML is based. Electronic’s chairman Michael Heller had been saying for some time that the company was looking, but could not find anything at the right price. As margins in computer hardware are squeezed, so are those of Sheffield-based Electronic, until it concentrates totally on software. The move that way continues as the software publisher and services company reported pre-tax profits and turnover down 12% to ú6.3m and ú1.8m respectively. The main software product is Merchant, a merchanting and wholesale distribution package – something similar to what BML does, apparently. Univision, a database management system and WinLink, a graphical front-end for cross-system access to database management systems are gradually changing the company’s profile around the world, having been installed in the US, Australia, South Africa and the far east, according to chief executive Richard Jowitt in the statement. Heller’s forecast for the year was satsifactory pre-tax profits, with a contribution from the elusive BML.
