After over a year of looking for the appropriate candidate, Electronic Data Systems Corp is this week concluding negotiations in Italy to buy a software and systems integration company, says an EDS France spokesman. The company is likely to be Turin-based Systems & Management SpA, which International Data Corp ranks as Italy’s tenth largest systems house. While the EDS France spokesman confirmed that the negotiations were concluding, he would not say that the target was Systems & Management. A Systems & Management spokesman, however, said the company was putting the finishing touches on a major agreement today and tomorrow, and that it would have an announcement to make on Friday morning. The EDS France spokesman said Robert McCashin, corporate vice-president, would probably talk about the affair on Thursday, at a meeting of the Paris informatics press club. Systems & Management, with annual turnoverr of nearly $76m, began corporate life as a consultant for a few Unix user sites and today specialises in technical information consulting, management consulting, and the development of applications for the banking, insurance, tourism and real estate industries. The General Motors Corp subsidiary, whose Italian business has historically comprised largely its support of its parent, tried last May to acquire Database Informatica SpA, Italy’s third-largest systems house, but the move was quashed by IBM Italia SpA, which is a major shareholder. IDC analyst David Morgan reportedly reckons that EDS arrives at the right time: Cap Gemini Sogeti is not in the best of health in Italy; Olivetti, which possesses the second-ranked systems house in the country (OIS), could possibly be reviewing its strategy and redefine its mission more toward systems integration.
