It’s now over two months since Computer Associates International Inc gave up on its $9bn takeover bid for Computer Sciences Corp (CI No 3,362), and since that time CA’s president Charles Wang has talked of little else than other acquisitions. Last week Wang was in Tokyo to launch the Japanese version of CA’s Jasmine object database, and told Reuters that the company is in talks on fresh mergers and acquisitions. We are going to now go ahead and do it in the services side of the business, he said. Last month, Wang said he knew the name of the services company CA plans to take over. Candidates on the speculation list included Electronic Data Systems Corp, and Cap Gemini Sogati SA. But Wang appeared to pour cold water on those suggestions by saying that Right now, the strategy is aimed towards smaller companies. That might be partly because, following the CSC bid, the share values of service related companies have soared. Over recent years, CA has grown its revenues significantly through the acquisitions of Cheyenne Software Inc for $1.2bn in October 1996 (CI No 3,015) Legent Corp for $1.8bn in 1995, and ASK-Ingres for $315m in 1994. The company has forecast fourth quarter growth rates of around 21% to $1.46bn and 75 cents a share, compared with 60 cents a share for the same quarter last year after adjustment for the three-for-two-stock split. CA is due to report its fourth quarter and year-end figures this week.
