Things are hotting up in the supply chain management software business with two acquisitions on the horizon, according to analysts at Deutsche Morgan Grenfell. Manugistics Group Inc is tipped to acquire Ottawa, Canada-based Promira Software Inc, in an attempt to boost its strengths in discrete supply chain management. Promira, a ten year-old privately held firm has concentrated on software for manufacturers of complex products using PC-based and more recently Window NT-based hardware. It numbers Compaq Computer Corp, Digital Equipment Corp, Lucas Industries, NCR Corp and Motorola Inc amongst its customer base. Promira’s main product line is the Reflex product suite, now on version 6.0. Deutsche Morgan Grenfell thinks that Rockville, Maryland-based Manugistics will pay between $100m and $150m for the company. Meanwhile, Baan NV is said to be considering the acquisition of Chesapeake Decision Sciences Inc, of New Providence, New Jersey, whose MIMI software suite has been doing good business in the consumer packaged goods market, and area where Baan is weak. Baan had been rumored to be considering a tie-up with Manugistics to help it win consumer packaged goods business. Oracle Corp, which launched its Oracle CPG package last August, went to Manugistics and two other companies, Industri-Matematik International Corp, the Swedish company with offices in Tarrytown, New York and TSW International Inc of Atlanta, Georgia, for the technology behind the package (CI No 3,113).
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