Eastham, UK-based recruitment, training and consultancy firm CRT Group Plc has been flying high since Oracle Corp chief Larry Ellison’s Education Technology LLC invested in it last year (CI No 2,971), and it has just snapped up technology consultancy Software Design Associates Ltd for 17m pounds. Chief executive Karl Chapman said the company had been looking for a long time for a project management consultancy to fill out its own portfolio, and having worked with Software Design Associates over the past 5 years, felt it was a perfect fit. Software Design provides project managed systems support. In the year to December 1996 it saw profits of 1.2m pounds on revenues of 9m pounds. Ellison’s company injected 109m pounds into CRT, instantly doubling the company’s net assets to around 120m pounds. Following the acquisition, CRT has 60m pounds cash in the bank and no debts, so Chapman says more acquisitions are definitely on the way.
