Canada’s only minicomputer manufacturer, troubled Geac Canada Ltd of Markham, Ontario wants to hand over its financial software to Co-operators Data Services Ltd of Regina, Saskatchewan: it has reached agreement in principle for Co-operators to buy its Canadian financial software and become Geac’s distributor for hardware and other services to the Canadian financial market. Co-operators will also tale over Geac’s service bureau operations, client contracts, related assets and associated staff and the agreement is expected to be concluded by the end of next month. Geac still builds its proprietary 8000 and 9000 processors, which are pitched at transaction processing applications for libraries, credit unions and financial services. It has annual turnover of about $56m, development bases in the US, the UK and France as well as Canada, and operations in 14 countries. Co-Operators Data Services Ltd is Canada’s fourth largest computer services bureau, offering data processing, network management, consulting services, office products and facilities management to financial organisations and hospitals. It is operated as a co-operative.
