Ask Group Inc doesn’t look too long for this world in its present form, we wrote in February, noting that Computer Associates International Inc was by far the most likely company to want to buy it (CI No 2,351). Yesterday it happened, with the definitive agreement to acquire Ask for $13.25 a share cash, valuing the company at some $311m. As we pointed out earlier this year when the shares were trading at only $8.375, the company looked like a bargain with over $400m in annual sales, and that a bid of only $13 to $14 a share would enable the two largest shareholders, who bought at about $10.75 a share, to wash their faces (CI No 2,351): yes indeed, Electronic Data Systems Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co, Ask’s two largest shareholders, have agreed to tender their shares, which together represent 27% of the total. Ask has amended its shareholder rights plan so the acquisition can be completed triggering the poison pill. The most important part of Ask these days is its Ingres relational database subsidiary, which has been having a tough time of it in the market, and Computer Associates was seen as the only one likely to be interested in buying it because there is a common code base to Ingres and the CA/Universe product; Ingres’s other rivals were doing too well wooing its customers away to want the hassle of buying it. Ask’s original core product is the ManMan manufacturing suite, now offered as ManMan/X for Unix; the company also offers SIM/400 manufacturing software for the AS/400.
