i2 Technologies Inc has signed on to acquire Smart Technologies Inc, a provider of internet-based customer relationship management software, in a stock transaction valued at $68m. The Irving, Texas-based supply chain management software provider will issue 2.1 million shares of its common stock in exchange for all the outstanding shares and options of Smart.
i2 says the deal comes as part of its overall e-business strategy and reckons the combination of Smart’s web-content building applications with its business process optimization software will allow it to offer customers a more comprehensive e-business package. The company feels there is a great deal of potential in the market that Smart’s software addresses and says it will invest aggressively to capitalize on it. For the near-term, however, i2 expects the acquisition to be dilutive until the fourth quarter of 2000, and to add to earnings after that.
