The world’s biggest free-standing software company, Computer Associates International Inc, Garden City, New York, is about to get even bigger with the acquisition from Applied Data Research Inc, Princeton, New Jersey – and this one shouldn’t be a nail biter because ADR is owned by the Chicago phone company, Ameritech Inc, which wants to get shot of its acquisition of two years’ standing. It was known that Ameritech was a seller of the IBM mainframe database and data communications software specialist – few could understand why the phone company bought it in the first place – and rumours started flying last month that Fujitsu might be the buyer (CI No 998). Computer Associates will pay $170m cash for the company. A chastened Ameritech comments that while ADR is a stronger company and better positioned in its industry then when Ameritech acquired it in 1986, it is selling because synergies between systems software and communications have not developed to the extent we had anticipated. As we looked to the future of our industry, we determined that the sale of ADR to Computer Associates was the best course of action for all concerned. And a wonderful buy for Computer Associates, which is now just as strong in system software as it is in applications.
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