Capitalizing on its position as heir to the non-Windows segment of the multi-user Windows NT market, Citrix Systems Inc has splashed out a total of $25.5m to buy engineers and technology from UK company Insignia Solutions Ltd plus a license to management software from Epicon Inc which it will use extend the manageability and platform coverage of its WinFrame client/server software. Citrix always said it would use some of the $75m it is getting to help Microsoft build multi-user Windows NT software called Hydra, for mergers and acquisitions. Citrix picks up Insignia’s NTrigue Mac and Unix ICA clients, X for Mac and Unix and the X Windows-based Java client Insignia called Keoke. Citrix is also taking on half of Insignia’s High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, engineering team which will form a new Citrix R&D center in the UK town. Insignia has 100 staff at the facility. Citrix will migrate NTrigue users to vanilla WinFrame and offer a migration path to its multi-client display software for Windows NT 4.0 currently codenamed Picasso. Citrix bought NTrigue because Insignia’s WinFrame license, on which NTrigue is based, expired on December 31 and Microsoft won’t allow Citrix to supply an NT 4.0 multiuser operating system, limiting it to older versions of NT and the ability to support non-Windows clients on Hydra, a beta release of which is due this quarter. Citrix has extended Insignia’s WinFrame license to February to enable the company to continue to sell and support the products during transition. Struggling Insignia lost $10.8m on revenue of $44.2m in 1996 – figures which it had to re-state – and is $7.86m in the red in first nine months of 1997. It warns that it will report less fourth quarter revenue than expected; analysts surveyed by First Call had forecast Insignia would lose $0.04 a share in its fourth quarter to the end of December. Insiders say the NTrigue revenue stream could be worth up to $15m. Insignia says it’ll re- focus its business on the core Windows/PC-on-Unix emulation technologies on which it made its name plus Java virtual machine technologies it is developing for embedded systems. Citrix is also paying $8m for the rights to Waltham, Massachusetts-based Epicon’s technology which installs and maintains Windows applications. Citrix will take a one-time charge of $24m against its first quarter which ends March 31st to account for the two acquisitions. Last September Citrix’ paid $5m to WinFrame OEM DataPac Australasia for source code rights the Australian company was supposed to hold (CI No 3,256). Microsoft’s interest in making NT multi-user, a chore it previously farmed out to third parties like Citrix Systems and Groupe Prologue, revolves around the threat posed by network computers, thin clients and total cost of PC ownership. Citrix, whose shares fell as low as $9.75 before the company cut its deal with Microsoft (CI No 3,159), climbed $2.18 on Monday to close at $69.25. Insignia shares closed down $0.25 at $2.12.
