Canadian content management firm OpenText dipped another toe in the business process management water today with the $260m acquisition of Texas-based Global 360. It comes just a few months after OpenText bought another BPM player, Metastorm, in February this year.
Global 360, whose strength lies in its case management capabilities, is said to have made $90m in sales in the past twelve months and to be profitable.
"Many global organizations – about sixty percent — already connect their Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and BPM projects under a single strategy," said John Shackleton, president and CEO of OpenText. "Customers are moving in this direction and we are accelerating our investment in leading content, process and case management solutions as a result. With the addition of Global 360, we will be able to offer organizations a complete spectrum of solutions from a strong, independent and global solutions provider."
OpenText was keen to stress that Global 360 is more of a document-centric BPM player than Metastorm, which it says was more human-centric. It even said that Metastorm will offer other solutions that complement Global 360, such as business process analysis and enterprise architecture software.
OpenText said after these two acquisitions it has 300 BPM staff in R&D alone. "With its strategic emphasis on content, process and dynamic case management, plus its strong Microsoft relationship, OpenText is a great fit for our customers and our team," said Steve Russell, Global 360’s SVP R&D and CTO. "Customers can expect us to continue to deliver our leading solutions, plus gain even greater value through access to an expanded solutions portfolio and the support of a much larger company."
OpenText said it is committed to the current product roadmaps of both companies.
Content from our partners
OpenText also announced that it will amend and restate its senior secured credit facilities and establish a new revolving credit facility, in part to pay for this latest acquisition. It’s promised to offer more details of its plans for Global 360 when it announces its year-end results on August 10.
