The two companies should be a good fit, given that Digital River’s focus is the US and Element 5’s is Europe. Both companies focus mainly on the packaged software market, and manage and host the e-commerce and internet distribution channels, including marketing activities, for downloadable software and product updates from their clients.
Founded in 1996, privately held Element 5, which is based in Cologne, Germany, has more than 10,000 clients across 150 countries. Digital River claims to service 35,000 clients globally, including 3M, ACT!, Autodesk, H&R Block, Motorola, Novell, Staples.com, and Symantec.
Element 5 is expected to add $17m in revenue and $0.04 of projected earnings per share over 2004, and a further $33m and $0.30 of earnings per share over 2005. Digital River now expects its pro-forma net earnings per share for the full year ending December 31, to come in at $0.87 after the acquisition.
The announcement comes just after Digital River announced results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2004, which resulted in net income up 89% on revenue up 30% year-on-year at $31.9m.
This article is based on material originally published by ComputerWire
